Re: Remember Michael Smith?

[Marc Pierce <karhu@umich.edu>]

On Tue, 20 Apr 1999, Josh Ozersky wrote:

> He was a great shooter who couldn't play defense.  Red
> drafted him because he was a white guy from a mormon
> school (remember that fetish?) and actually said on
> draft day that they hoped he would be another Larry. 
> The real Larry, after having watched Smith in practice
> for a day or two, pronounced him "just another white
> guy who can't run or jump."  Smith would awe his
> teammates with his finesse abilities in practice, such
> as banking off the shot clock, or throwing a football
> through the length of the basket cross-court.  Give me
> Derek Smith.

Absolutely.  Too wimpy to play power forward, too slow to play small
forward.  He did have a few 20+ point games, when they started him at
forward alongside Bird, but those highlights were few and far between.

Like you said, though, he could do a lot of things-- none of which helped
him in the NBA.


Marc Pierce