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SG Katie Smith (All B1G, B1G Champion, OSU HOF, Asst. Coach Minnesota Lynx)

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BB73

BB73

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'16 & '17 Upset Contest Winner
Former Buckeye Katie Smith doesn't get near the attention that her accomplishments deserve. Over the weekend, I noticed that she was the leading scorer on the winning team in the WNBA all-star game. I only saw this in the box score, she didn't win the MVP (Swoopes did, who scored 15 to Katie's 16), and wasn't even mentioned in the brief article that covered the game.

Now Katie is about to become the first American woman to score 5,000 points in the history of women's basketball (she needs 11 point in tonight's game). That's a pretty significant achievement. But it won't get a lot of media coverage. Because some of those points came during seasons in the ABL, David Stern's WNBA hype machine will not make much noise about this.

Congrats, Katie, on being a true pro and representing the Buckeyes well!

plaindealer

Smith quietly closes in on scoring 5,000



Wednesday, July 13, 2005

Associated Press
Minneapolis -- Katie Smith doesn't have Diana Taurasi's endorsement deals. She doesn't have Lisa Leslie's modeling gigs or Sue Bird's flair in the open court. Her name doesn't roll off the tongue like Sheryl Swoopes.

Instead, Smith has worked in the shadows, methodically piling up points and quietly knocking down jumpers.

"If you asked who would be the first to score 5,000 points in women's basketball, nobody would say Katie Smith," said Smith, who grew up in Logan in southeast Ohio and played at Ohio State.

Smith is poised to become the first American woman to score 5,000 points in her professional basketball career, which spans three years with Columbus in the old ABL and six-plus seasons with the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA.
She enters tonight's home game against Detroit needing just 11 points to achieve the milestone.

"It's a tremendous accomplishment," said Lynx coach Suzie McConnell Serio. "To be able to score that many points, and she's been through two knee injuries. She's been able to maintain that level of play."

So why is it this woman can walk down the street without being hounded by screaming little girls in No. 30 Lynx jerseys?

"I think her being in the ABL first, she's not one of those Rebecca Lobos, Lisa Leslies, Sheryl Swoopes, the three starters [of the WNBA]," Bird said. "She's a blue-collar player. She drops 25 points on you and you don't even realize it, but trust me, I know. I'm glad I don't have to guard her."

Even when Smith is brilliant -- she led the West with 16 points on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point range in last weekend's All-Star victory -- it still isn't enough.

This time, it was Leslie's dunk, Swoopes' MVP award and Taj McWilliams-Franklin's tearful reunion with her soldier husband that pushed Smith to the background.

"I'm definitely aware of it," Smith says of the lack of publicity. "Part of it is when I came out, women's basketball was just starting to get some exposure. . . . It's somewhat my personality, you just do your job and it doesn't matter."

Throughout her career, Smith has played with an understated excellence. It makes her a perfect fit in laid-back Minnesota, where even keel isn't just a state of mind, it's a way of life.

Need proof? Here's Smith on what she thinks of being the first to score 5,000:

"Not much," she said. "It's kind of vague, just like a number. It just kind of comes as your career goes. It doesn't really have this, Man, I made it' feel to it. It's kind of setting a precedent for others to follow."

It certainly is.

"She's one of the great players in the league and very rarely gets credit for that," Seattle coach Anne Donovan said. "She gets the All-Star recognition but she's not one of the featured All-Stars, so she continually flies under the radar screen. It's not a true testament to what kind of player she is, how great a player she is."
 
Katie is truely one hell of an athlete. We both graduated from Logan in 1992. Katie and I actually played on the "Bobcats" basketball team in 5th and 6th grade. She was the first girl to ever play in the boys league. We all thought it was bullshit. It wasn't long before she was kicking all of our ass's, even then.

Her dad (John) is also my dentist. I recently saw him and he told me that both of Katie's knee's are shot. He says that too much more and she will hardly be able to walk.

Anyway, congrats to Katie. I am not a fan of womens basketball, but she had far more game than me........
 
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7/12/06

Great unknown

Shock's Smith one of best, has toiled anonymously
July 12, 2006
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BY SHAWN WINDSOR
FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER


<!-- SIDEBAR PHOTOS AND FACT BOXES --><!-- ARTICLE SIDEBAR --><!--MAIN PHOTO-->
bilde


Katie Smith makes a pass against Cappie Pondexter of the Phoenix Mercury. Smith, acquired by the Shock late last season, says of her new team: "I like where we are. I like where we are going." Says coach Bill Laimbeer: "She's steady and doesn't turn the ball over and is learning how to get her teammates involved. By the end of the year, she will be phenomenal." (KIRTHMON F. DOZIER/Detroit Free Press)
<!--THEME LINKS--><!--RELATED ARTICLE LINKS--><!--RELATED EXTERNAL LINKS--><!--PHOTO GALLERY LINKS--><!--MAIN FACTS BOX-->WNBA All-Star Game
  • When: 7:20 tonight (television coverage starts at 7).

    Where: Madison Square Garden, New York.

    TV: ESPN.

    Shock representatives

    Forward Cheryl Ford, guards Deanna Nolan and Katie Smith. Smith will also be honored as a member of the All-Decade Team.

    INSIDE


    [*]Ford named replacement starter, 7D.


    [*]All-Star Game roster, 8D    .
<!--ADDITIONAL FACTS-->
  • <TABLE border=1><THEAD><TR><TD colSpan=5>By the numbers</TD></TR></THEAD><TBODY><TR><TD colSpan=5>Katie Smith's 2006 and career WNBA averages: </TD></TR><TR><TD><TD>G</TD><TD>PTS</TD><TD>AST</TD><TD>REB</TD></TR><TR><TD>2006</TD><TD>19</TD><TD>11.7</TD><TD>3.5</TD><TD>2.7</TD></TR><TR><TD>Career</TD><TD>237</TD><TD>16.7</TD><TD>2.5</TD><TD>3.2</TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>

    WNBA's All-Decade Team

  • Sue Bird, Storm

  • Tamika Catchings, Fever

  • Cynthia Cooper (retired), played for Comets

  • Yolanda Griffith, Monarchs

  • Lauren Jackson, Storm

  • Lisa Leslie, Sparks

  • Katie Smith, Shock

  • Dawn Staley, Comets

  • Sheryl Swoopes, Comets

  • Tina Thompson, Comets
<!-- BODY TEXT --><!--ARTICLE BODY TEXT-->A few weeks ago, Katie Smith was named to the WNBA's All-Decade Team. Twice, Smith has won Olympic gold medals. And she is the all-time leading scorer in women's professional basketball.
Yet few know who Smith is or what she has accomplished.
The Shock guard is, simply put, one of the best women's basketball players on the planet. She will be honored tonight at the WNBA's All-Star Game, both as a member of the All-Decade Team and as a reserve player for the Eastern Conference.
"Katie went to college at a time before every game was on television," Shock coach Bill Laimbeer said. "Then she got buried in Minnesota, which is a small market and didn't have much of a team. The normal person didn't see a lot of Katie Smith, even though she won Olympic gold medals."
Smith was traded to the Shock toward the end of last season from the Minnesota Lynx, with which she earned two first-team all-WNBA honors and five All-Star Game appearances. She led the league in scoring in 2001 and set the record for points in a game -- 46.
Laimbeer brought Smith to Detroit to take over the offense and help return the team to the level it was at in 2003, when it won the WNBA championship.
"I told her I wanted her to take charge," Laimbeer said.
Smith is a natural shooting guard, not a point guard. But she is learning to play a hybrid point in Detroit.
"She's steady and doesn't turn the ball over and is learning how to get her teammates involved," Laimbeer said. "By the end of the year, she will be phenomenal."
Smith's arrival has given the Shock one of the best starting fives in the league. With the season more than half over, the Shock is 13-6 and in second place in the Eastern Conference.
"I like where we are," Smith said. "I like where we are going."
Three days ago, the Shock beat the Comets in Houston, where they had not won in six previous trips.
"It feels good," Smith said.
It feels better, she said, knowing that every time she steps on the court she has a chance to win. That wasn't true in Minnesota, where in 6 1/2 seasons she made the playoffs twice.
"I love it here," she said. "People here know who the Shock are."
Even if they don't know who she is yet.
Earning respect her way
Smith grew up in Logan, Ohio. She began playing organized basketball in the fifth grade -- on a boys team. Back then, that was her only choice.
She also played against her brothers. As they got older and had trouble getting by her, they relied on backing her down, using their weight and strength.
When she was 13, she went to her first camp. The coach told her father, John, he had a prodigy. That same year, her first recruiting letter arrived.
"Ohio University," Smith recalled.
As a senior in high school, she narrowed her choices to Ohio State and Stanford. The home team won, and as a freshman she took the Buckeyes to the NCAA finals, where they lost to Texas Tech and Sheryl Swoopes, who scored 47 points that game.
Smith graduated from OSU in 1996 as the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer and was drafted by the American Basketball League's Columbus Quest, which won the league's only titles in 1997 and '98. When the ABL folded in December 1998, Smith was picked up by the Lynx, and she tore up the WNBA, regularly dropping jumpers on the league's biggest stars.
Even with her growing legend on the court and within women's basketball circles, she remained anonymous beyond them.
When it comes to "media ... and being on television and people recognizing your face and whatnot, yeah, it doesn't happen, which is honestly OK," she said. "I do not play for that stuff. I get my respect from my opponents, my peers, my coaches, USA Basketball. That's the biggest compliment because those people understand the game."
Smith, who recently turned 32, plans on playing a few more seasons. After basketball, she will apply to dental school, she hopes at her alma mater, and follow in her father's footsteps -- he is also a dentist.
She finds similarities between the court and the dental chair.
"You can see your work," she said, whether it's in passes or baskets or newly crowned teeth. "And you work with your hands."
Last Thursday against the Phoenix Mercury, Smith scored 12 points. She hit threes. She ran the team. She kept the Shock in the game early even as it appeared sluggish. In the end, the Mercury rolled past Detroit, but in the loss, Smith showed a presence.
"She's a veteran," said Swin Cash, the Shock's most well-known star. "She competes every night."
She's done that for 20 years now, a span that includes the rise of the women's game. Smith is hopeful for its future, and marvels at how the college women's game now produces ready-made stars who've played in prime-time games on network television.
"We need to keep tweaking," she said of the pro game, "keep finding our niche, keep promoting."
The earthbound version of basketball has found its audience among those who love fundamentals. Smith exemplifies that, shooting a basketball better than most anyone.
Still, she plays the game not to score, but to win, to satisfy the competitiveness.
"It's about finding a way to win," she said.
In Detroit, in the twilight of her career, she thinks she has found a place to do that.
Contact SHAWN WINDSOR at 313-222-6487 or [email protected]
Click to expand...
 
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What a string of accomplishments. Don't they call her 'Casper' because she's as pale as a ghost? A slow, white girl leads the WNBA in scoring for all time? Not bad. She's also the OSU ALL-TIME leading scorer (men's and women's). Not bad.

Great career, liked it when she was on the OSU women's bench during our season. Can't but help in our recruiting. Don't know much about salaries in the WNBA, but can't imagine that she's paid as highly as Swopes, Leslie, et al.

Kinda assume that she's accepted to Osu's dent school, and then (as I understand it), she'll set up practice in Logan? Or stay in C-Bus? Anyone know?

Anyway, a great competitor, and a true Buckeye.

:gobucks3: :gobucks4: :banger:
 
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Katie Smith's single-game scoring record was broken by Diana Taurasi, in a double-OT game on a team running Paul Westhead's hurry-up offense.

Taurasi also broke Smith's record for points in a season, and will also exceed the scoring average when her season ends.

tucsoncitizen.com

Taurasi's 47 set WNBA record

The Associated Press

HOUSTON - Diana Taurasi enjoyed a record-breaking performance in a game her team had to win.

Taurasi scored a WNBA-record 47 Thursday night to lead the Phoenix Mercury to a 111-110 triple-overtime win over Houston. It was the highest-scoring game in league history.

"It was a great basketball performance," Houston coach Van Chancellor said. "Had she not fouled out, it could have been well into the fifties."
She broke Katie Smith's record of 46 that was set in 2001 against the Los Angeles Sparks while Smith played for Minnesota. Taurasi wasn't around for the end as she fouled out with 2:45 left in the second overtime, 35 seconds after she broke the mark.
Phoenix (16-16) needs to win its remaining two games and hope the Comets lose at home to Seattle on Saturday to qualify for the postseason.
"What's even better about this night is that we won," Taurasi said.


http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7004485585

August 9, 2006 4:20 p.m. EST
Christopher Cornell - All Headline News Staff Writer

Phoenix, AZ (AHN) - In just her third season in the WNBA, former Connecticut star, Diana Taurasi, has set the league's single-season scoring record. Taurasi scored 21 points to help keep the Phoenix Mercury's playoff hopes alive. The Mercury defeated the Minnesota Lynx 99-69.

Taurasi needed just two points to break the previous record held by the Lynx Katie Smith who scored 739 points in 32 games during the 2001 season.

Taurasi hit a pair of free throws and then buried a 22-foot jumper with 5:20 left to break the record. She now has 758 points with just three games to go.
Penny Taylor had 24 points and rookie Cappie Pondexter chipped in 23 points for the Mercury as they won their fourth straight to keep pressure on the Houston Comets. The Mercury trail the Comets by just a game and a half for the fourth and last spot in the Western Conference playoffs.

While at Connecticut, Taurasi led the Huskies to three straight NCAA championships with the last one coming in the 2003-04 season.

Following college, she was taken first overall in the 2004 WNBA draft. During her rookie year she was selected to the All-Star team after putting up 17 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists a game. She was also named the WNBA's rookie of the year.

Taurasi is a three-time All-Star, and she is looking to lead the Mercury into the playoffs for the first
 
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Point guard or scoring threat? Smith conquers both

By Graham Hays
ESPN.com





AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- You can't teach an old dog new tricks, but aging dogs headed for the Hall of Fame know how to keep a few tricks hidden in reserve.
wnba_g_ksmith_195.jpg

D. Lippitt/Einstein/NBAE via Getty Images
Katie Smith went 7-for-12 from the field, with three 3-pointers, five boards and five assists in Detroit's Game 1 home win over the Sun in the East finals.


So maybe it shouldn't be surprising that Katie Smith, one of the best pure scorers in the history of women's basketball, is making Detroit's offense go by making sure everyone else can score.
Smith, not exactly ancient at 32, already has impeccable career credentials as a scorer. If you want objective evidence, she's got it. She is the only player who wasn't part of the WNBA at its inception to score 4,000 career points, holds the all-time record for 3-pointers and held the single-game scoring record until Diana Taurasi went off in the final week of the regular season. And with one of the quickest releases in the game and picture-perfect form, she passes any subjective tests as well.
Calling her a shooting guard is a description, not a position label.
All of which made last season's trade which brought her to Detroit after nearly seven seasons in Minnesota seem like the kind of move better suited to fantasy sports.
Sure, in theory it always sounds good to add an elite scorer to the roster, but the Shock already had a backcourt scorer in Deanna Nolan and a frontline full of players who need touches in Swin Cash, Ruth Riley and Cheryl Ford.
What they didn't have was a point guard, someone to conduct an orchestra full of first-chair talent and first-chair needs.
When the Shock rose to the top of the basketball world in 2003, becoming the first team other than Houston or Los Angeles to win a championship, that conductor was Elaine Powell. She was a role player responsible more for facilitating offense than creating it. But in averaging better than four assists per game, she allowed Nolan and Cash to create (Cash actually led the team in assists with 135 to Powell's 134 that season) through their normal attacking roles.
With Powell limited last season and Nolan continuing to emerge as a star, the offense ran through Nolan. But the result was a player who had 44 more assists than anyone else on the team but also a career-worst 100 turnovers and shooting accuracy worse than 40 percent for the second year in a row.
As explosive and athletic a player as there is in the league, Nolan seemed at times to be fighting her own aggressive instincts in favor of directing traffic. And whether that had much to do with Detroit's 16-18 record last season, it led many to question whether the Shock were doomed to repeat that frustrating mediocrity when they opened this season without adding a traditional point guard (Powell, selected in the expansion draft by Chicago, has since rejoined the roster but plays limited minutes).
As it turns out, the Shock did have their point guard. She just hid that identity behind a pretty lethal outside shot.
"It's just basically getting us into what we need to get into, handling the ball, getting the ball where it needs to be, understanding the flow of the game and when maybe not to push it and when to set up," the quick-talking Smith calmly explained in her Midwestern drawl. "But really, it's just to get people in spots and call offenses that can get people touches that need touches or get people the shots that are hot."
After years of carrying the scoring burden at Ohio State, with Columbus in the ABL and with a Minnesota franchise that struggled to surround her with playoff-caliber parts, Smith settled in as the player running the show for Detroit's star-studded lineup.
And after a 70-59 win against Connecticut in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Thursday moved the Shock to within a game of the WNBA Finals, Smith appears to be leading them down the same path as 2003.
"She's gotten comfortable at the position; she's the one that gets us into plays, you know, settle everybody down," Nolan said. "She knows the right plays to call every time so that we have mismatches when we need a basket. She brings a lot of veteran leadership."
The new role is one Smith said required more of a shift in focus than a shift in skills.
"My role before is kind of like Tweety [Nolan's nickname], you're a two-guard, you're a scorer," Smith said. "The plays are run for you, and every time you catch the ball you're looking to shoot or to create something. It's that mind-set, you're always attacking.
"As a point guard, you have to pick and choose, and you have to get people into sets. Yeah, you can get shots off anytime you want to, but that's not going to be effective for the team."
Against the Sun, Smith excelled at doing just that. In acts as simple as taking the plays from coach Bill Laimbeer while bringing the ball up court, or giving Nolan an encouraging pat on the hip after a timeout in the second quarter, Smith carried herself like someone who knows they're responsible for keeping many moving parts working together while at the same time being dependent on those parts.
Not that Smith has gone completely John Stockton while playing alongside Karl Malone's daughter.
"One of my strengths is to be able to score," Smith said. "And you've got that fine line of putting pressure on the defense and looking for your shots and also understanding the tempo and when to get into something, when to push and when not to."
She toed the line perfectly against the Sun, shooting 7-for-12 from the field, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc on her way to 17 points. And while she has taken a career-low number of field goals, she has saved her best for key moments, averaging a fraction less than 20 points per game in four games against Connecticut.
Smith's success at transitioning to a lead-guard role while remaining a scoring threat has probably had the most direct impact on Nolan. Freed up to play her attacking game and spot up for outside shots, Nolan averaged 13.8 points per game in the regular season while boosting her field-goal percentage back above 40 percent and dropping her turnovers well below 100.
"I think so," Nolan said when asked if Smith settling in has helped her game. "We have the ultimate counterpart that shoots 3 -- the best 3-point shooter in the history of the WNBA -- and that kind of helps out on the other side of the court when people are trying to lean toward her and kind of forget about me. So it helps out a lot."
Erin Phillips, taking on the assignment usually reserved for Katie Douglas, certainly wasn't forgetting about Nolan in Game 1, but she had a tough time sticking with her as Nolan posted a team-high 21 points.
"You know, Tweety has been around, and she's … I don't need to give her a whole lot besides continue to attack," Smith said of the advice she lends Nolan. "The girl is a phenomenal athlete and has one of the best looking shots there is. It's just for her to keep that mind-set of attacking and really putting the pressure on at all times, and she can do that.
"I really like playing with her, she's a really easy person to communicate with. … You just got to keep her going, because she's got a motor that can go for days, and we want to ride that."
All in all, Smith is having a ball by focusing on distributing the real one.
"So yeah, basically I have a hand in a little bit of everything, so it's fun, it's a lot of fun," Smith said.
But you get the feeling the real fun will come for Smith if she gets her hand on the championship trophy.
Graham Hays is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's women's basketball coverage. E-mail him at [email protected].
 
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Dispatch

Ex-Buckeye Katie Smith shines outside spotlight

Saturday, September 02, 2006

Aaron Portzline
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

20060902-Pc-E14-0600.jpg
</IMG> JESSICA HILL ASSOCIATED PRESS Katie Smith, right, one of the best women’s basketball players of all time, is trying to cap her career with a WNBA championship.


Katie Smith, 32, has never considered dropping the diminutive form of her name in favor of Kate or Katherine.
"You know what, though?" Smith said with a chuckle. "It’s not really up to me. I’ll always be Katie, especially to the people in and around Columbus. It’s ‘Katie Smith.’ Anything else just doesn’t sound right."
Smith first made a name for herself as a high school star in Logan, about 50 miles southeast of Columbus. A sign at Logan’s city limits reads "Home of Katie Smith."
In the past 15 years, Smith has gone far beyond those city limits, to the far-off reaches of the world, placing her name among the greatest women to ever play basketball.
Smith has won two Olympic gold medals, two world championships, two American Basketball League titles, one WNBA scoring title and, as a freshman at Ohio State, reached the NCAA Women’s Final Four.
She has dribbled on five continents, played in more than 20 countries and collected a million memories.
"It’s been an amazing run," Smith said. "Growing up in Logan, I just loved playing basketball. That’s all I was thinking about at the time. I had no idea it was going to turn into this. I had no idea I’d be playing this long and seeing all that I’ve been able to see."
Smith, now playing with the Detroit Shock of the WNBA, isn’t done yet. The Shock faced the Sacramento Monarchs in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals last night in Detroit. Sacramento led the best-of-five series 1-0.
"Winning a WNBA title would be the last thing out there for me," Smith said. "It would rank right up there with all the others."
An all - time great

Smith said she’ll keep playing at least two more years, "at least through the next Olympics," before she considers retiring and pursuing a career in dentistry.
If she quit today, though, her resume could still make jaws drop.
Smith’s 5,581 points are the most ever by a pro women’s player. She’s No. 3 on the WNBA career scoring list. When she left Ohio State, Smith was the career scoring leader in the Big Ten Conference.
"She’s got to be in the top 10 all time, probably higher," said Brian Agler, who coached Smith with the Columbus Quest of the American Basketball League and the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA. Agler now is an assistant coach with the San Antonio Silver Stars.
"I never saw Nancy Lieberman-Cline play much. She just wasn’t exposed like players are today. But I’ve worked with Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, Yolanda Griffith … you name it, and Katie Smith is right there, right with them."
Agler first got an appreciation of Smith when the Quest drafted her out of Ohio State. She was a driving force behind the Quest winning both of the ABL’s championships.
"She might be the most versatile player ever," Agler said. "We used to have her defend post players, because she’s so strong and so quick. But then a few seconds later, she’s bringing the ball up the court and hitting a three-pointer for you."
Smith has had a remarkable 2006 season, even if it’s not so obvious on the surface. She has averaged 11.7 points, below her career average of 16.4.
Detroit coach Bill Laimbeer, a former great with the Pistons, spent two years trying to acquire Smith from the Lynx. Last year, at midseason, he pulled it off, acquiring "a player that will do anything it takes to win."
This season, Laimbeer asked Smith, a shooting guard/small forward her entire career, to switch to point guard.
"It’s been a challenge, but I love that," Smith said. "I went into it headfirst. Some nights I’m scoring two points; some nights 20. But I’ve grown as a player. I’ve gotten better."
Laimbeer has been delighted, saying Smith’s adjustment "is a huge reason we’ve made it all the way to the finals.
"For a player of her stature to handle it like she did it shows why she’s one of the greatest players ever."
Under the radar

Still, remarkably, Smith remains relatively anonymous.
While Swoopes and Leslie have become household names, Smith is not in that realm. When the WNBA promotes itself — in TV commercials, radio spots or billboards — Smith is rarely front and center, even though she was on the league’s All-Decade Team, as voted by coaches.
The snub is hard to quantify, but most agree that Smith deserves more credit.
"Was I not on TV enough in college? Did we not win enough in college? That’s part of it, maybe," Smith said. "But also … am I flamboyant? No, I do the dirty work. I’m sort of on the underground. Honestly, it doesn’t really bother me. I am where I want to be, and I get the respect I deserve from the people who matter."
Agler has noticed the snub, way back when Smith and Agler were with the Quest. These days, he thinks the WNBA shares some of the blame.
"Part of it is Katie’s personality," he said. "She’s very lowkey, very down-to-earth and not very controversial. That’s why everybody loves her.
"But the league hasn’t done its part to expose her, I don’t think. Part of it is where she’s played. Minnesota isn’t a major market. But I also think there’s been opportunities to put her out in the forefront and it hasn’t been done. And nobody’s ever explained why to me."
That could change if Smith and the Shock win a WNBA title, but Smith insists repeatedly that she doesn’t care. She has had enough of the spotlight, she said. She doesn’t need all of it.
Basketball has given her lifelong friendships, life experiences, a free education at Ohio State and many trips around the world.
"I’ve see the beaches of Normandy, and that just brings it all home to you, what happened there on those shores," she said. "I’ve seen the Berlin Wall, the Christ statue in Rio. I’ve seen some amazing things that most people only see in calendars.
"Basketball has been such a big part of my life, and I’ve tried to always make the most of it. Let it take me where I can go. And I’m still going strong. As great a ride as it’s been, I’m still going strong. I’m not ready to stop."
[email protected]
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