Is Leon Smith turning it around?

I found this article about Leon in the Chicago Tribune. It's an interesting read. It sounds like he has a ways to go still, but he's making some progress. At the age of 21, he's still young enough to have a long NBA career. With his size & athleticism, he might be a guy that the Rockets should keep an eye on. In any event, I sure hope the kid gets it together.

http://chicagosports.com/bulls/content/story/0,1984,167982,00.html

It may be his last chance


By Scott Merkin
Special to the Tribune

November 18, 2001 10:33 PM CST

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On a recent Monday morning in Sioux Falls, S.D., front-office workers for the reborn Continental Basketball Association's Skyforce had their preparations for the weekend's home opener interrupted by a visit from the team's 6-foot-10-inch, 250-pound starting center.

The young man shook hands with each staffer, thanking them for the special gift they had presented him two weeks earlier on his 21st birthday. It was back to business after he headed off to practice, but the work somehow seemed less onerous after such a thoughtful visit.

The visitor was Leon Smith, the supremely talented but troubled basketball phenom who tried unsuccessfully to jump from King High School to the NBA two years ago. The special gift was a simple birthday cake, something most people might take for granted.

"When he was thanking our staff he told them, 'I've never had a cake for my birthday before,'" Sioux Falls coach Paul Woolpert said with a sympathetic smile. "If you think about it, what happened with Leon is something that's pretty special."

Five days later Smith draped his lanky body over a stool in front of his locker at Gary's Genesis Center. The Skyforce, fresh off an opening-night victory over Rockford, was preparing to take on the Gary Steelheads. The visit to Gary may be as close as Smith gets to Chicago this season, which may or may not be a good thing.

So soft-spoken he's barely audible, Smith maintains he's sincere about resurrecting his basketball career. He's only 21, but bridges burn quickly for an athlete who is considered trouble. And Smith, who spent most of his life in group homes, with no real family support since he was 5, has known little but trouble since the San Antonio Spurs took him with the final pick of the first round in the 1999 NBA draft and immediately traded him to Dallas.

There was a suicide attempt, an arrest for brandishing a gun, another for vandalizing the car of his estranged girlfriend's mother. There was court-ordered psychiatric care, a falling out with NBA Players Association counselors and a release from the Mavericks, who settled his contract.

"I don't want this to be the last chance," Smith said. "But at the same time, in order to be a better person, it could be the last chance. The negative stuff from the past definitely humbled me. I had to let go of a lot of it and just focus on basketball again."

Troubles aside, players with Smith's blend of size and talent don't come along often, and there always seems to be a team willing to take a chance on him. Last year it was the International Basketball League's St. Louis Swarm, coached by former NBA coach Bernie Bickerstaff, who took an interest in him.

In December, Smith didn't show up for a game and was released.

Bickerstaff now coaches the Harlem Globetrotters, and earlier this fall he invited Smith to a tryout camp. Trotters owner Mannie Jackson said Smith was "a pleasure to work with" during the first four or five days of camp, but over the final two days he "fell outside of our tolerance ban."

Smith was released. He said the Globetrotters' style of play was not for him.

He was happier playing low-key ball in various Chicago church leagues, teaming with his brother, Jerry Sanders, who had left Northern Illinois University. Smith was thinking about abandoning pro ball entirely. Money would be no object for a while; Smith is drawing $145,000 a year for 10 years under settlement terms of his three-year, $1.45 million Dallas contract.

Ron Green, his latest adviser whom he met through a mutual friend three years ago, convinced him not to walk away. Green told Smith that if he has been blessed with a special gift, he has an obligation to use it.

"I wasn't sure," Smith said. "I just couldn't seem to get a break, and when I did, I messed it up."

Smith went to Sioux Falls' training camp in October on the advice of Portland Trail Blazers scout Herb Livesey, a friend of Woolpert's who had watched Smith work out this summer. It has been a family feeling from the first day, with coaches, teammates and Skyforce fans working to make him feel welcome.

"Leon has tremendous potential as an athlete and as a person," said the Globetrotters' Jackson, who has no hard feelings. "He just needs to be cared about and embraced. He needs to work with a family-driven company rather than a business."

Raw ability has been the only constant in Smith's basketball career, and the start of the CBA season suggests little has changed. Smith scored 16 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against Rockford and erupted for 30 points and 18 rebounds in Saturday's two-point victory at Gary.

Smith displayed a smooth baby hook, he finished a drive with a neat little finger roll, he started a fast break with a behind-the-back dribble and he brought the crowd to its feet when he banked home a twisting, 360-degree layup.

"I get caught up watching Leon," Woolpert said. "Some people say he needs a full season in the CBA. He does need to play a lot of structured basketball and learn pro defensive concepts. But I see him picking those things up fairly quickly.

"He also has to learn to keep it turned on all the time. Where he last played significantly, in high school, he could float at times and still dominate. He's playing against guys with the same skill level here."

In the second half against Gary, Smith looked tired and disinterested at times. Then again, it's hard to gauge Smith's demeanor. His stone-faced expression rarely changes, aside from an occasional wry smile for a group of fans who were riding him or a grimace toward the referee who called his fifth foul. He's not a trash talker, and his long, loping gait is more indicative of fluid athletic ability than boredom.

"Sometimes it's easy," Smith said, explaining that he was conserving his energy for when he'd be needed at the end of the game. "Sometimes it's just being in the right spot, and other times it takes that extra step to get open."

Smith pays little mind to his past transgressions. He remains on probation for the criminal-damage-to-property case, but he is not undergoing counseling.

"If I need to talk to someone, there are a lot of great guys on this team," he said firmly.

His NBA goals are on hold. Right now Smith hopes for nothing more than to play out this season with Sioux Falls and improve his game.

A return to basketball has given him a love for life again, and the possibility of a more normal existence. Yet normalcy for Smith has always been followed by estrangement.

"I wouldn't be in this position if it wasn't for basketball, and I'm happy right now," Smith said. "Besides, I have nothing better to do.

"But a normal life? I will probably never know how that feels."