Derek Smith (basketball)

Derek Smith

Personal information
Born	(1961-11-01)November 1, 1961 Hogansville, Georgia
Died
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)
Listed weight	205 lb (93 kg)
Career information
High school	Hogansville (Hogansville, Georgia)
College	Louisville (1979–1982)
NBA draft	1982 / Round: 2 / Pick: 35th overall
Selected by the Golden State Warriors
Playing career	1982–1991
Position	Shooting guard / Small forward
Number	41, 18, 21, 43
Coaching career	1994–1996
Career history
As player:
1982–1983	Golden State Warriors
1983–1986	San Diego / Los Angeles Clippers
1986–1989	Sacramento Kings
1989–1990	Philadelphia 76ers
1990–1991	Boston Celtics
As coach:
1994–1996	Washington Bullets (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
NCAA champion (1980) Metro Conference Co-Player of the Year (1981) 2x First-team All-Metro Conference (1980–1981)
Career NBA statistics
Points	5,232 (12.8 ppg)
Rebounds	1,300 (3.2 rpg)
Assists	866 (2.1 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Derek Ervin Smith (November 1, 1961 – August 9, 1996) was an American professional basketball player. He won a national championship with the Louisville Cardinals in 1980, and spent nine years in the NBA in a career shortened by a knee injury. He would later become an assistant coach for the Washington Bullets from 1994 until his death.

Career

Smith attended the University of Louisville from 1979 to 1982. He was a member of the 1980 University of Louisville Cardinals basketball team which won the NCAA championship, defeating UCLA 59–54.

Smith is sometimes credited with popularizing the term "high five" during the 1979–80 basketball season.

Smith was selected 35th overall, 13th in the second round, by the Golden State Warriors in the 1982 NBA Draft. He played for the Los Angeles Clippers from 1983 to 1986. He averaged 22 points per game in 1984-85. In the next season, he averaged 23.5 points per game, but was limited to 11 games because of a knee injury followed by mononucleosis. He played for the Sacramento Kings from 1986–1989, for the Philadelphia 76ers in 1989 and 1990, and the Boston Celtics in 1991. During his NBA career he scored over 5,000 points.

Smith became an assistant coach for the Washington Bullets in 1994.

Death

In August 1996, Smith went on a cruise on the Norwegian Cruise Line ship MS Dreamward for season ticketholders of the Bullets and the Washington Capitals. He took his family along. Smith and then-Bullets player Tim Legler volunteered to hold basketball clinics during the cruise.

On August 9, 1996, while the ship was near Bermuda and returning to New York City, Derek Smith suddenly suffered an apparent massive heart attack during a farewall cocktail party in the presence of members of his team. Ship medics attempted to resuscitate him for 25 minutes before declaring him dead.

Smith was buried at Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky. His funeral was attended by the Bullets team and several former teammates.

Family

Derek was married to Monica, who has since remarried, and had two children; a daughter, Sydney, and a son, Nolan. Nolan played college basketball for the Duke Blue Devils and was drafted by the Portland Trail Blazers. Like his father 30 years before him, Nolan made it to the Final Four of the 2010 NCAA D-I tournament and he and his Duke Blue Devils won the 2010 National Championship just as his father did in 1980. Nolan has a tattoo of his father on his right arm.

External links

• NBA & College stats
• Derek Smith at Find a Grave