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Where are
they now? Q&A with Michael Smith
by Kelly Martinez
In
the 1989 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics selected Michael Smith of
BYU with the 13th selection in the First Round.
The Celtics’ Red Auerbach, during pre-draft analysis, compared Smith
to Celtic legend Larry Bird. It seemed a perfect match.
However, things didn’t turn out the way Smith or the Celtics had
anticipated. After a tumultuous two seasons with the Celtics,
Smith was released and spent the next five seasons between the CBA,
European leagues and, finally, the NBA again. He officially
retired after the 1995-96 season.
Currently,
Smith is the radio play-by-play announcer for the Los Angeles Clippers
and fills in as the TV color commentator. The TV team of Ralph
Lawler, Bill Walton and Smith, along with KCAL-9 sports anchor John
Ireland, was recently awarded with an Emmy for the “Best Live Sports
Coverage in Los Angeles”.
Born
in Rochester, NY, in 1965, Michael’s parents moved to southern California
when he was only three years old. Smith and his wife, Michelle,
now live in Dana Point, CA—a city about 60 miles south of Los Angeles—with
their five children.
In
high school, Smith was a standout athlete in football as well as
basketball. He graduated from Los Altos High School in Hacienda
Heights, CA, in 1983. He signed to play basketball and football
at BYU, but eventually opted to play basketball only.
Recently,
Meridian Sports writer Kelly Martinez had this conversation with
Smith:
Q.
Did
colleges recruit you to play football?
A.
Yeah. I kind of made up my mind early that I would only play
football at BYU, but at the beginning I didn’t tell any of the football
people that. I had a lot of letters and interest from schools
in the PAC-10 and, of course, BYU. They all came to see me
play football. It was fun.
Q.
How soon did you decide to play only basketball in college?
A.
I never really gave football a chance because football was something
I never planned on playing. My freshman coaches in high school
talked me into playing. I never figured I was any good at
football. I was able to read the defenses. I could walk
up to the line of scrimmage, as tall as I was, and assess what defense
they were playing. Then I could pick them apart. I just
did what the coaches taught me. I really think I was a product
of the system. I had a coaching staff that said, ‘If you do
it this way, it’ll work and nobody will beat us’. And nobody
did! All I did was to do it the way they said and it worked!
Maybe that was my sport and I missed my calling.
Q.
Did your dad play ball in college?
A.
My dad is not an athlete. He’s 6-foot-7, but he never played
any high school or college sports. I guess he played a little
Church ball. He’s a chemical engineer.
Q.
What about your mom?
A.
Mom’s 5-foot-8 and was a registered nurse from the University of
Utah. She was a mother of five, housewife and never played
sports. She was a concert violinist.
Q.
Do you play an instrument?
A.
I played violin when I was five for a year. Then I played
piano when I was 10 for two years. I can still read piano
music, but not well enough to sit down and play a piece. I
can take thirty minutes and learn a hymn and probably play it.
The music gene’s there, I just haven’t developed it.
Q.
Is the Prophet Joseph in your family tree?
A.
No. As a matter of fact, my mom’s maiden name is Smith.
The first convert on my mom’s side was a John Johnson from Sweden.
On my dad’s side, there’s a rich heritage in the Church. His
grandfather was a Schmidt who changed his name to Smith.
Q.
Who were your athletic role models as you were growing up?
A.
My brother, Clark, who’s five years older than me, was into basketball
about the time that I got turned onto it. When he was a freshman
in high school, I was nine and he was 14, so the light started to
flicker.
Julius Erving,
out of my brother Clark’s love for him, probably became my first
idol on the basketball court. As I got into high school, I
became a Lakers fan. I idolized the Lakers. Magic Johnson
and those guys in the 80s…when they were winning championships.
I guess they’re starting to do it again.
Q.
Who were your spiritual role models?
A.
My brother Clark, who had made a decision to go on a mission, was
a huge role model for me. He played basketball at BYU-Hawaii.
That meant the world to me even though I didn’t know playing for
BYU-H was any different than playing for BYU or North Carolina.
I just knew he was leaving high school, going to college on a scholarship
and then he was leaving to go on a mission.
When I got to
college, the captain of the BYU basketball team was a guy named
Devin Durrant, who was a returned missionary. Devin was a
great role model for me because he never assumed that I wouldn’t
go on a mission. Everything he ever said to me was, ‘Boy,
when you get back from your mission, you’ll be so good’. There
was never any doubt in his mind. Whether he was a schooled
persuader, a leader and a wise role model that realized the importance
of his position or whether he was just the humble servant that he
is. Either way, he had a huge effect on my life.
Q.
Where and when did you serve your mission?
A.
I served in Argentina from 1984-86.
Q.
Did you play basketball before your mission?
A.
Yes. I started one year for BYU.
Q.
After your mission, did you finish your eligibility
at BYU?
A. Yes,
I did. I almost turned pro after my junior year, though.
Had I not been in love with my wife, and were it not for the pleading
of my mother to finish school and get my degree, I probably would
have gone pro early. I was 23 at the time, having gone on
a mission. The money wasn’t that great back then. Nothing
like it is now. I almost signed with an agent and almost did
it. I mean, it was really close. So, I hung around,
finished up school and married my wife in the fall of my senior
year (Oct. ‘88) in the Los Angeles Temple.
Q.
Did you play any other sports at BYU?
A.
I played volleyball a little in my freshman year. I had been
a volleyball player in high school and had been invited two different
times to try out for the U.S. Olympic team. I liked volleyball
a lot. I think that had BYU had a sanctioned team at the time,
I would’ve tried to play. I don’t know if I would’ve been
able to. I think if I had devoted some time to that sport,
I could’ve been very good. I played a little bit after the
basketball season with the volleyball guys. It was their club
team. They had already played all of their games, so they
were just practicing and having fun.
Q.
Did your wife play sports?
A.
No. She was a cheerleader, homecoming queen and student body
president at the same high school I went to. She was two years
behind me.
Q.
How many children do you have and are any of them athletically inclined?
A.
We have five children. My daughter Kenya (11), just won a
two-girl outdoor beach volleyball tournament in the 12-and-under
division. Then there are three boys: McKay (10) plays
basketball; Karch (7) plays everything; and Sandon (6) plays everything
as well. We also have another girl, Kendall (3). I’m
sure she’ll be better than all of them.
Q.
So she’s into playing with Lego’s right now?
A.
(laughs) Not Lego’s. She’s trying to keep up with the boys.
It’s riding a Razor scooter, at the beach riding a boogie board,
shooting baskets out back. It’s whatever the boys are doing.
She was bumping volleyballs today.
Q.
Red Aurbach was very critical of you while you were with the Celtics.
How did you deal with his criticism?
A.
I didn’t deal with it very well. To be honest, at 36, I can
look back and say that the experience got the best of me.
The first mistake
I made was I tried to bulk up to get stronger for the NBA.
I had played my entire college career at 225 pounds, and, at 6-foot-9,
I knew that I wasn’t the fastest guy in the world, couldn’t jump
the highest, but still…I was very coordinated. There were
things that I could do that I knew other pros couldn’t.
So I reported
to camp with the Celtics at 242 pounds. It wasn’t a mistake,
because I worked my tail off that summer to put on those 17 pounds.
I was in the weight room three times a week at five in the morning.
I stayed in Utah training all summer until I went to Boston to report
for camp. Unfortunately, I got mononucleosis two weeks before
camp started and lost a little bit of my strength and energy.
I tried to lift and eat it back on right away, but I just wasn’t
ready by the time camp started.
NBA camps are
quick. It’s ten days of two-a-day workouts. They really
test you. I started to have foot problems, my shins ached
and my knees hurt. Of course, all of this was a result of
the 17 pounds I had put on. I learned quickly that my body
could not handle the extra weight and still play at the same speed.
It took me the first week of camp and the next two or three weeks,
but my body went right back down to 224 pounds, but I had sent the
wrong message.
Early on, the
Celtics’ first impressions of me were, ‘Wow! He’s slow, he’s
hurt, he can’t play. What did we do picking him at 13?’
That first impression probably cost me my career in the NBA.
Not that I couldn’t have changed it. I tried to. I spent
the next eight years battling that. But it just didn’t happen.
I think because of the slow start, I sat on the bench. For
the first time in my life, I began to doubt in myself.
Q.
Where did you go after the Celtics let you go?
A.
I came home to California, then I went to Italy for the rest of
that season. I spent the next summer with Golden State, but
they released me right before veterans’ camp and I ended up in the
Milwaukee camp. I didn’t make that team and played that year
in the CBA. I made the CBA All-Star team and was the leading
scorer at the All-star game. A month later, I broke a bone
in my foot and came home to rehab. Rather than go through
the same thing the next season, I took an offer from a team in Spain
and went to play there. I led the league in scoring and found
my game again. I became who I was in college and, all of a
sudden, I was the player I used to be. Of course, in Spain,
there’s no superstar seven-footer in the paint clogging things up.
The next season,
I took an offer from a better team in Spain for more money.
The following season, I played for the Clippers and figured I was
back in the NBA to stay. Then came the lockout of ’95.
Five days before veteran’s camp, the Clippers renounce my rights
and make a trade. I was one of the guys they released with
nowhere to go after they had told me not to sign overseas because
they were going to re-sign me. The lockout killed me.
So, I went to Spain one more time, then I started broadcasting.
Q.
Where did you start broadcasting?
A.
I was in Utah training for the veterans’ camp with the Clippers
when I spoke with [current BYU athletic director] Val Hale.
He asked, ‘If you don’t go play anywhere, do you want to do the
BYU games on TV?’ I said, ‘Sure!’. So I did 12 BYU games
that season (‘95-’96).
Q.
So when you first started broadcasting, were you doing play-by-play?
A.
No. At BYU, I was the TV color commentator. As a matter
of fact, [Clippers’ play-by-play announcer] Ralph Lawler was in
Salt Lake getting ready to do a Clipper game, turned on the TV and
heard me doing a BYU game as a color commentator and thought I’d
make a good play-by-play guy. So, he called me up one day
and said, ‘I don’t know what you want to do with the rest of your
life, but if you’re interested, I think we might have an opening
on our team as a broadcaster on the radio side.’
So, I put together
a tape, sent it to the Clippers and they hired me that summer.
So I started going to Ralph’s house twice a week the whole summer
and he taught he how to do radio play-by-play. Another lockout
kept that season from beginning until January. There were
no pre-season exhibitions. Ralph and I thought we’d need the
usual eight pre-season games to iron out all the kinks. But,
game one of the season was a TV game and I was flying radio all
by myself. It was baptism by fire.
Q.
Are you part of the Clippers’ TV crew as well?
A.
The way it is now, I’m the radio play-by-play guy. If the
game is televised, Ralph and Bill Walton do the game on TV.
If Bill is not there, then I step over and do color commentary on
TV and we hire somebody to do radio. If the game is not televised,
then Ralph and I do it on radio. He does play-by-play and
I do color commentary.
Q.
How do you prepare to broadcast an NBA game?
A.
I get on the Internet. First, I read the stuff about us.
Of course, I’ve seen the previous night’s game for us. Then
I read about 10-15 days’ worth of stuff on the opposing team.
So, if we’re playing Phoenix, I go into the local Phoenix newspaper
and look at 15 previous days of sports pages on the Suns to see
what they’ve done over the past two weeks. Who they’ve beaten,
how they’ve beaten them, who’s played well, who’s not played well,
what the coaches say. If anything strikes me as story-worthy,
I make a note of it. The way I look at it is that it’s like
preparing for a college final every other day for six months.
I can’t do it in less than five hours per game.
Q.
Who are your broadcasting role models?
A.
I grew up listening to Chick Hearn and Vin Scully. Those are
pretty good role models. There were times when I was a kid
sitting in my dad’s car listening to Vin Scully doing Dodger games
because we couldn’t get the game in the house. This was during
the Dodgers’ Heyday in the 70s. Those memories will be there
forever.
But, I’ve got
to give all the credit in the world and take my hat off to Ralph
Lawler. Here’s a guy at the pinnacle of his career, been with
the Clippers for 21 years and has done everything in broadcasting.
He went out of his way to call me and asked if I wanted to do this
and then took the time to teach me how. I think that’s pretty
cool.
Q.
I understand you’re helping coach the Clippers’ summer team.
Are your aspirations to coach?
A.
There is an opening on the Clippers’ staff and I’m very excited
about that because I think I have a shot at becoming one of the
Clippers’ assistant coaches. I just told you that broadcasting
is my life and my love, but my real aim, and what I know I would
be good at, is coaching. I’m a teacher and a communicator
first. Missionary work, teaching in the Church…that’s what
I do best. For me to take a kid and teach him how to shoot,
or to teach him how to believe that he can shoot? I
can do that.
So this is a
unique opportunity. I’ve worked out all of the Clippers’ draft
potentials. I actually got on the floor and played with them,
putting them through drills. I’m now helping Dennis Johnson
coach the Clipper team in the Los Angeles Summer Pro League.
Q.
Is this your coaching tryout?
A.
Head coach Alvin Gentry will have the final decision, but there’s
an opening. He may keep his current staff in tact, which are
just three assistants. He may go out and hire a longtime X’s
and O’s NBA guy. Or, like he told me, it’s wide open and I’ve
got as much of a shot as anybody. That may happen. I’m
hoping it does, but I’m realistic enough to know that it may not.
What a great opportunity this is. I’m having a blast with
it. It’s what I thought it would be.
Q.
Do you hold a Church calling?
A.
I was just released from the high council in my stake. Right
now, I teach the 17-18 year olds in Sunday School. I’m also
the choir president in my ward. I organize our choir events
and sing in the choir as well. We went through a three-year
stretch where my wife was Young Women’s president in our ward and
I was on the stake high council. It was brutal, but we survived
it.
Q.
Is there a spiritual experience from your life that stands
out above the others?
A.
I’ve had lots of them, but the one that stands out in my mind is
from when I was playing ball in Spain. I was actually praying
to get back into the NBA. I think my desires were pure.
I wanted to get back into the NBA to be a role model; to be what
I should have been: a returned missionary there to set an example,
to be a worthy priesthood holder in that field. That’s what
I thought I was called to do.
During this
time in Spain, my wife was teaching seminary, I was the ward mission
leader and we were in an English speaking ward in Madrid.
We totally lost ourselves in the service of that ward. I was
playing ball, she was teaching seminary, we had three of our kids
and she was pregnant with our fourth. We just became consumed
with what other people needed in that ward.
While all of
this was happening, my prayers were quietly being answered and I
didn’t even know it. Halfway through that season, I was cut
from my Spanish team that was in third place. I was the leading
scorer on the team and the general manager calls me in to tell me
he’s going to make a change and replace me. I said, ‘You are?
But I’m the leading scorer on the team.’ He says, ‘Yeah, I
know. But you don’t know how Spanish people think. We
need to shake up this team.’
I figured it
was some ploy to get out of paying me. I showed up for practice
the next day with a letter that said: “We, the club, no longer
need Mike’s services, but we agree to pay him the rest of his money.”
I figured they’d never sign it, but they did! This was unheard
of before. They still owed me more than half of my contract!
So I was released from all duties. The team also gave me my
rights. Those rights allowed me to sign with another team
if I wanted.
All of these
things fell into place and we couldn’t figure it out. Little
did we know, but the Lord’s hand was mightily at work in our behalf.
In a matter of seven days, we were on a plane heading home to California.
Two days after getting home, the Clippers call and invite me to
work out for them. I drove down on their day off in my 1971
Volkswagen bus. Two days later, they signed me. They
didn’t just sign me to a 10-day contract; they signed me for the
rest of the season!
I had forgotten
about my prayers to get back into the NBA, but all of this was happening
as we lost ourselves in the service of others.
Lo and behold,
our fourth child, Sandon, was miraculously born in April, which
would have been at the height of the playoff season overseas.
There were complications, which are too difficult to go into now.
Basically, the baby was born while my wife was in the hospital for
a normal doctor’s visit. It went to an emergency C-section.
The doctor said that had she been anywhere else than right there
and right then, we would’ve lost both mother and baby.
In Spain, we
lived 45 minutes from the hospital and my wife didn’t speak a word
of Spanish. Steps were taken and we didn’t know they were
happening at the time. You don’t get cut from Europe and then
get signed by the NBA. It just doesn’t happen in that order.
I know for a
fact that the Lord was making moves and taking steps to provide
us with whatever we needed. He knew my wife’s life needed
to be preserved and He knew this child was to be born healthily…and
he was. It wouldn’t have happened in Spain.
Q.
Since I’ve been writing for Meridian, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback
about LDS athletes and coaches that work or play on Sundays.
Some of the feedback has been critical. To some members of
the Church, it’s clear that these LDS athletes and coaches are in
violation of the Sabbath. What is your take on this sensitive
subject?
A.
I think the decision should be made in the home. It was made
in my home as a child. I never played on Sunday growing up
and missed many a championship in Little League and everything you
can imagine. It broke my heart as a kid, but it was a decision
my parents helped me make early on. After a few times, I was
able to make it myself.
I knew early
on the meaning of the Sabbath. We didn’t play sports, we didn’t
attend sports, and we didn’t go to birthday parties and things like
that on Sunday. We stayed home. Yeah, we watched TV
because we were fur boys and we were into what was on TV sports
on Sunday. But we did it as a family.
That’s the way
I’ve instructed my children and taught them so far. They’ve
missed volleyball tournaments and soccer games and things of that
sort. I think it’s very difficult if you have more than one
LDS child on a team and the families don’t believe the same way.
It makes it difficult for others to understand how a religion can
teach something where one family says, ‘yes’, and the other says,
‘no’.
It is a sensitive
subject. One about which I was concerned enough, before I
got drafted, that I consulted a good friend and General Authority,
who told me, ‘Don’t even think twice. This is your chosen
profession; you go do your job. Just as if you were a doctor
or an emergency surgeon; you go do your job. Later on in life,
when you have the power or ability to choose a profession that may
or may not require you to work on Sunday, you choose it wisely.’
I’m stuck in
the same predicament now. I’m a broadcaster and for six months
of the year, I’m tied to it. I haven’t missed a game in three
years. I would love to be able to say that I can’t work on
Sundays. I think if I said that, they’d hire somebody else.
Am I wimp?
Am I less than courageous? Am I lacking the faith that Nephi
had? I think that at this point in my life, this is my profession.
This is what provides for my family. I’m not in a position
to choose. In two and a half years on the high council, I
never missed a speaking assignment. I had to switch a couple
of times, but I never missed. I think that’s kind of neat.
I think that if your heart is true and your desires are sincere,
then I think the Lord definitely knows what’s in your heart.
Q.
Do you have a favorite hymn?
A.
Yes! Hymn #29, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief.
Q.
If you were called on a mission tomorrow, what scripture would you
have put on your plaque?
A.
My mind is full of them. The one that probably sticks out
the most pertains, more than anything, to my testimony. It’s
in Alma 5:45-48 . That scripture
came true to me in so many ways between the ages of 18 and 21.
Q.
What book is on your night stand right now?
A.
A book called The Greatest Golfer Who Never Lived by J. Michael
Veron…along with the Standard Works.
I like to read.
I try to alternate a Church book with a non-Church book for my pleasure
reading. Lately, I’ve been into golf history. I love
golf.
Q.
What’s your handicap?
A.
Right now? Plus one.
Q.
Is that the best it’s ever been?
A.
Yeah.
Q.
Do you have any hobbies?
A.
I build and repair golf clubs. I enjoy that. I assemble,
repair, and that kind of stuff. I do all of my buddies’ repairs.
I also like
snowboarding. The last game of the season, I took my daughter
Kenya up to the game against the Jazz and we snowboarded all day
at Brighton. I just got into surfing as well.
I also cut hair.
I cut all of my boys’ hair. There are probably five or six
people in our ward or stake that come to me regularly for a haircut.
Q.
Are you a licensed cosmetologist?
A.
No. My dad cut my hair while I was growing up. He got
tired of paying a stylist’s fee, so he taught me how to do it…on
his head! He showed me step-by-step and I’ve kind of experimented
from there. All three of my boys have a different style of
haircut.
Q.
Three of the top four picks in the recent NBA Draft were drafted
straight out of high school. What’s your view on this practice?
A.
These kids are physically and potentially ready to compete at this
level, but they’re not ready to contribute. One or two may,
but they’re few and far between. They’re not ready.
I think the demands on them emotionally, physically and financially
are too much. Having money and free time are also a big problem.
Those are Satan’s two greatest tools.
I think the
kids should go to school. I don’t think there should be a
rule that forces them to stay four years in college, though.
Some of them may be ready before that. I just don’t like the
idea of these guys coming right from high school into the NBA.
I mean, pretty soon we’re going to see a junior in high school drop
out and go to the NBA. That’s the direction we’re heading.
I just wish we would send the right message. Let these guys
go to school. I think that’s what it’s all about.
The things you
learn in college cannot be taught anywhere else. I remember
going away my freshman year and waking up on a Sunday morning for
the first time without a mom or a dad to say, ‘Hey! We’re
going to church!’ There was nobody there to get me up and
to get me to go. You find out what you’re made of when you’re
all alone.
Q.
It used to be that LDS athletes, once they left on a mission, would
not be afforded the opportunity to play on the Division I collegiate
level after their mission. That has changed over the past
few years. Why do you think it’s changed?
A.
I think colleges are smart enough now to go after whoever is the
best athlete. Stanford seems to have wised up to that.
They took Mark Madsen. Nobody could say that Madsen wasn’t
good enough to play for BYU, but he chose Stanford. I think
it’s great that LDS athletes are getting chances at schools other
than BYU.
Q.
What advice would you offer to young LDS athletes?
A.
I’d definitely tell them that the Church is true wherever they go.
The thing that made a difference in my life was that when I put
my own selfish desires second and thought about others, my dreams
started to come true. Nobody in the world would tell you that,
but people in the Church would tell you that same thing. If
you do what the Lord has asked you to do, He will bless you.
I knew, in theory,
that if I went on a mission and gave everything I could to the Lord,
that He would bless me. I didn’t know then what those blessings
would be. I had hoped it would’ve been a trip to the NBA,
but certainly that’s not the blessing that came. Greater maturity,
spiritual strength and a wiser man came back to BYU and found his
way to the NBA.
If
you are aware of an LDS athlete that deserves recognition in Meridian
Sports, please e-mail the sports writer at sports@meridianmagazine.com
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