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From the stands, Pete Smith can still hear people complain about his son’s play. He has to restrain himself from responding. He detests the critical comments, the jabs from people who’ve never played the game at an elite level. They don’t know how hard it can be. They don’t know that you need guts to take those shots. They don’t know that Josh Smith is living a dream that’s been transferred from father to son.
Pete Smith grew up in rural southern Georgia. When he and his 13 siblings weren’t picking cotton or stacking peanuts, they played sports. They played in the streets, where if you acted up, the neighbors would whup you, before you got another whupping at home. But sports could be navigated. They made sense, providing comfort and direction more than half a century ago. “It’s being in a world where you’re in control,” Smith said, “because outside of that world, you’re not in control.”
Ultimately, basketball prevailed as the sport of choice. There was an artistry to it, he thought. Pete Smith could always jump, and he loved to shoot. In college, he became the first black athlete for the Valdosta State Blazers — the cultural significance of which he didn’t fully realize until later in life. His total field goal attempts (721) and rebounding average (13.7) in 1968-69 remain school records. Soon, professional leagues came calling. The Buffalo Braves selected Smith late in the 1971 draft. He played five games for the ABA’s San Diego Conquistadors in 1972, and spent time in camp with his hometown Hawks, though he couldn’t draw a roster spot. He was one of the final cuts on the New York Nets in 1975.
“He was a tough guy to cut because of how tough he was and how hard he played,” recalled Rod Thorn, then an assistant coach for the Nets. “He was right on the cusp of making it. He could very well have made it. He was that close.”
Pete Smith believes he was closer than that. There were not many players, he said, who could do what he could with a basketball. Perhaps, he added, he was ahead of his time as a tall player with ballhandling skills. After his hopes of a professional career flickered and dimmed, he returned to Georgia. “Sometimes once you chase a dream, you don’t know when you’ve got to stop the dream,” Smith said. That dream was passed down to his son, Josh.
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