Nolan Smith

Nolan Smith

Smith playing for Duke in February 2011
No. 4   Portland Trail Blazers
Point guard
Personal information
Date of birth	July 25, 1988 (1988-07-25) (age 23)
Place of birth	Louisville, Kentucky
Nationality	American
High school	Oak Hill Academy (Virginia), Mouth of Wilson, Virginia
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
College	Duke
NBA Draft	2011 / Round: 1 / Pick: 21st overall
Selected by the Portland Trail Blazers
Career highlights and awards
2010 NCAA Champion 2011 ACC Player Of The Year 2011 First Team All American 2011 First Team All-ACC 2011 First Team All-ACC Defensive Team
Stats at NBA.com

Nolan Derek Smith (born July 25, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the NBA's Portland Trail Blazers, having been selected with the 21st pick in the 2011 NBA Draft after four years at Duke University.^[1][2] As a senior, he was named a first team AP All-American and the ACC Player of the Year. As a junior, he started at shooting guard for Duke's national champion 2010 team.

Family

Smith is the son of the late Derek Smith, a former swingman of nine-year NBA and University of Louisville fame.^[3] The elder Smith was a starting forward on Louisville's 1980 NCAA championship team. He also played for the Cardinals in the 1982 Final Four. He was a second-round draft choice of the Golden State Warriors in 1982 and went on to play for the San Diego and Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings, Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics before retiring in 1991. His career ended prematurely due to knee problems.

Derek battled Michael Jordan in a famous 1984 game at the Los Angeles Sports Arena, outscoring Jordan 66-20, and throwing down a huge dunk over him that is still famous on YouTube. Derek suffered a serious knee injury in the 11th game of the 1985-86 season. At the time he was the third-leading scorer in the NBA at 27.3 points per game.

His father died when he was eight years old, of a heart attack at age 34 while they were on a cruise ship near Bermuda.^[4] Nolan said: "I thought he was going to sleep. I saw him from far away when it happened. I got closer, and I saw them close his eyes."^[4]

Smith has a tattoo on his right arm, with his father's likeness and the words: "Forever Watching."^[5] He said: "When I take the court, I look down at my tattoo. ... I know he's always with me, every game."^[5]

Early life

He frequently attended Washington Bullets practices after his father, Derek, took their assistant coach position in 1994. Bullets players made him a frequent guest at their home games following his father's death.

High school

In high school, he played for St. John's College High School during his freshman year, and then played at Oak Hill Academy in Mouth of Wilson, Virginia. At Oak Hill, he played alongside several future stars, including current Minnesota Timberwolves forward Michael Beasley and Denver Nuggets Point Guard Ty Lawson. Smith earned McDonald's All-America honors as a high school senior in 2007.

College

Beginning his sophomore year, he was named the starter at point guard for the Blue Devils, effectively making three-year starter (and team tri-captain) Greg Paulus a reserve. Jon Scheyer later took over at point, and Smith moved to shooting guard. Nolan is known as "The People's Champ" because of his dedication to his fans throughout his 4 years at Duke, using social media such as Twitter.

2009–10

March 28, 2010, Smith scored a career-high 29 points in an Elite Eight NCAA game, as Duke beat Baylor and advanced to the Final Four.^[6] In that game, Smith (628 points), Jon Scheyer (690 points), and Kyle Singler (667 points) became the second trio in Duke history to each score at least 600 points in a season; in 2001–02, Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer, and Mike Dunleavy, Jr. first accomplished that feat for Duke.^[7]

Through the 2009–10 season, he was 14th on Duke's all-time list in free-throw percentage (.789).^[8] For the 2009–10 season, he was 5th in the ACC in scoring (17.4 points per game) and minutes (35.5 per game), and 7th in field goal percentage (.441).^[9]

2010-2011

Smith averaged 20.6 points, 4.5 rebounds, and 5.1 assists per game during his senior season, leading Duke to a 32-5 record and a third consecutive ACC championship. ^[10] Smith was named as the ACC POY, 1st Team All-ACC, and was also named to the All-American first team. Fans voted Smith The 2011 Premier Player of College Basketball over Jared Sullinger (Ohio State), Jimmer Fredette (BYU), Harrison Barnes (North Carolina) and teammate Kyle Singler. He was picked to the First Team All-America by Fox Sports.^[11] He was among the final ten candidates for the Bob Cousy Award.^[12]

Year	Team	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
2007-08	Duke	34	4	14.7	.467	.386	.769	1.5	1.3	0.5	0.1	5.9
2008-09	Duke	34	6	21.6	.426	.346	.849	2.2	1.7	0.9	0.1	8.4
2009-10	Duke	38	38	35.5	.441	.392	.767	2.8	3.0	1.2	0.2	17.4
2010–11	Duke	37	37	34.0	.458	.350	.813	4.5	5.1	1.2	0.1	20.6
Career		143	85	26.8	.447	.368	.800	2.7	2.8	0.8	0.1	13.3

Source^[13]

NBA

Nolan Smith was chosen in the first round (21st overall) of the 2011 NBA Draft draft by the Portland Trail Blazers.

Personal

He was named after Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan. His mother, Monica, has a law degree from Louisville. Nolan grew up with Michael Beasley and remains best friends with him.^[14]

See also

• 2009–10 Duke Blue Devils men's basketball team

References

1. ^ Nolan Smith  #2  G. "Nolan Smith Stats, News, Photos – Duke Blue Devils – ESPN". Espndb.go.com. http://espndb.go.com/ncb/player/profile?playerId=36157. Retrieved March 21, 2010. 
2. ^ Ryan Fagan (March 7, 2010). "Duke's Nolan Smith: 'Our big guys have definitely gotten better' – Ryan Fagan – College Basketball". Sporting News. http://www.sportingnews.com/college-basketball/article/2010-03-07/dukes-nolan-smith-our-big-guys-have-definitely-gotten-better. Retrieved March 21, 2010. 
3. ^ "Nolan Smith keeps the memory of his father close – Men's College Basketball – ESPN". Sports.espn.go.com. January 16, 2008. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=3196773. Retrieved March 21, 2010. 
4. ^ ^{a b} "The legacy: Duke guard Nolan Smith – Matt Hayes, Sporting News – College Basketball". Sporting News. http://www.sportingnews.com/college-basketball/article/2010-04-01/legacy-duke-guard-nolan-smith. Retrieved April 1, 2010. 
5. ^ ^{a b} "Duke G Smith hopes to honor dad with NCAA titl – NewsandSentinel.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Community Information – Parkersburg News and Sentinel". NewsandSentinel.com. http://newsandsentinel.com/page/content.detail/id/106238.html?isap=1&nav=5135. Retrieved April 4, 2010. 
6. ^ "NCAA: Final Four Set; Madness Resumes Saturday – ABC News". Abcnews.go.com. http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory?id=10224008. Retrieved March 29, 2010. 
7. ^ "Notes: Duke 78, Baylor 71 – Duke University Blue Devils | Official Athletics Site". GoDuke.com. http://www.goduke.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=22724&SPID=1845&DB_OEM_ID=4200&ATCLID=204918040. Retrieved March 29, 2010. 
8. ^ "The Official On-Line Home Of Duke Statistics". GoDuke.StatsGeek.com. July 25, 1988. http://goduke.statsgeek.com/basketball-m/players/misc.php?playerid=2473. Retrieved March 29, 2010. 
9. ^ "Atlantic Coast Conference Official Athletic Site – Men's Basketball". Theacc.com. http://www.theacc.com/sports/m-baskbl/stats/2009-2010/confldrs.html#conf.wki. Retrieved April 3, 2010. 
10. ^ [1]
11. ^ Goodman, Jeff (Mar 7, 2011). "Goodman's 2010-11 All-America teams". Fox Sports (Fox Sports Interactive Media). http://msn.foxsports.com/collegebasketball/story/duke-blue-devils-notre-dame-fighting-irish-represented-postseason-honors-030711. Retrieved June 21, 2011. 
12. ^ "BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES FINAL TEN CANDIDATES FOR 2011 BOB COUSY AWARD" (PDF). Bob Cousy Award. February 7, 2011. http://www.cousyaward.com/docs/CousyAward2011.pdf. Retrieved July 7, 2011. 
13. ^ [2]
14. ^ "Nolan Smith keeps the memory of his father close". ESPN. ESPN. January 16, 2008. http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?id=3196773. Retrieved July 21, 2010. 

External links

• Official biography

Persondata
Name	Smith, Nolan
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	July 25, 1988
Place of birth	Upper Marlboro, Maryland
Date of death
Place of death