By
Mark Herrmann
By
Mark Herrmann
February 9, 2019 2:35 AM
Smith, who died 10 years ago, is fondly remembered at his alma mater, for
which he starred in the 1960s before having an outstanding career in the NBA
Randy Smith of the Buffalo Braves drives around
the Rockets' John Lucas on March 2, 1978, in Houston. Photo Credit: AP/CBS
Before every Bellport High School home basketball game, as each player is
introduced, he runs to the corner of the court, bends down and respectfully
touches the name painted on the floor. It is an enduring and vibrant tribute to
the figure who is identified in large script lettering: “Randy Smith Class of
1967.”
The entrance to the Bellport gym, named after Randy Smith, on Feb. 2.
Photo Credit: Daniel De Mato
The court was dedicated to Smith 10 years ago, weeks after his death, a
reminder that his surprising journey toward becoming an NBA All-Star
began right in Bellport.
Everyone who enters the gym sees a Randy Smith sign above the front door and,
once inside, notices his retired No. 32 on a banner hanging from the ceiling
above the midcourt line.
“He was great, a very gifted player. He had all the gifts it took to be a
superstar,” said Carlton Bullock, who was a year behind Smith at Bellport and
played with him on the 1966-67 varsity. “He was great at any sport.”
That is the thing about Smith. He left behind memories just as vivid on the
soccer field (that arguably was his best sport) and the high jump pit (he set a
state record by clearing 6 feet, 6 ¾ inches).
In a 1997 interview with Newsday, Smith said, “I liked baseball, too, but no
girls were out there watching anybody play baseball.” Had he stuck with it, he
might very well have made the major leagues.
Beyond all of that, though, was the Randy Smith that family, friends and
acquaintances knew. To them, he was more than his 12-year NBA career, including
a season with the Knicks. There was an inner strength beyond his then-record
streak of 906 consecutive NBA games. There was a higher rung even than being the
Most Valuable Player of the 1978 NBA All-Star Game, with 27 points in 29
minutes.
To those who knew him best, he was a humble, kind soul whose first post-playing
job with the league was helping former players in need and who often returned to
Bellport to raise spirits and hopes at his alma mater.
The Bellport High School Basketball court is dedicated to Bellport alumni Randy Smith who played in the NBA.
Photos were taken of Smith's retired #32 Jersey number which hangs
in the rafters at the gym at Bellport High School in
Bellport on Feb 2, 2019. Photo Credit: Daniel De Mato
“You never saw Randy upset or angry or not smiling,” said basketball Hall of
Famer Bob McAdoo, who played his first 4 1⁄2 years with Smith on the Buffalo
Braves. “He was just happy all the time. He didn’t let bad calls bother him and
he wasn’t bothered by things that were happening in his life.”
Plus, he sure could play. “First and foremost, he was an outstanding, fabulous
athlete,” McAdoo said from Miami, where he is a scout for the Heat after 19
years as an assistant coach. “He was the fastest basketball player I’ve ever
encountered. From baseline to baseline, foul line to foul line, I’ve never seen
anything like it. He had world-class speed.”
“Run and jump out the gym, man. He used to give me fits. Randy Smith was
[Russell] Westbrook before Westbrook,” Knicks Hall of Famer Walt Frazier said.
“He came in a little after me. He actually idolized me, ended up with the
Rolls-Royce and all that. The guy used to give me hell. He was so fast. Might
have been the best athlete in the league . . . I wish he was on my team. I would
have slept better.”
Combine that with a world-class work ethic and you’ve got a success story, one
of the best pro basketball players to come out of Long Island.
Randy Smith of the Buffalo Braves (trailed
by Bob McAdoo) drives for a basket
as Don Chaney (#12) and Jo Jo White (#10)of the Boston Celtics move in during an game at
Madison Square Garden on Sept. 22, 1973. Photo Credit: AP/EB
“While I was there,” McAdoo said of his Buffalo years, “his jumper got better,
his ballhandling got better. Randy was a guy who just played all summer. For
him, being a seventh-round draft pick and not expecting to make the team, he
just put it all out there. He made that team easily, going away.”
Not that Smith or anyone else was thinking NBA when he was a teenager in
Bellport. He was just a very solid high school player, one who was named to
Newsday’s 1967 All-Long Island second team (among the players on the first team
was Cold Spring Harbor’s Chip Morton, whose son, Charlie, saved Game 7 of the
2017 World Series for the Astros).
“He was a good teammate. He was unselfish, he would do whatever he could to make
the guys around him better,” Bullock said. “He liked to kid around, do a little
singing. You know, back in the day, guys would sit around on street corners and
do a little doo-wop. He was into all that, the Motown sound.”
Was he as good a musician as he was an athlete? “Ah, he was OK,” Bullock said
with a laugh.
What makes Smith’s rise so compelling was that he was not recruited by major
college basketball programs. He drew Buffalo State’s interest with a record
performance in the state track meet, which was held on campus. He eventually
went out for soccer, which was a Division I sport there, and became an
All-American.
He figured he might as well try basketball, too. He not only made the squad but
led it to three conference championships. As a junior in 1969-70, he averaged
26.5 points and 14.5 rebounds as the team reached the NCAA College Division
Final Four. The Braves, a second-year NBA expansion team possibly looking for
some good local publicity, chose him in the seventh round of the 1971 draft.
Seventh-round picks rarely made it past the early days of training camp, but
Smith hit the ground running and never stopped.
“He could dribble faster than other people could run,” said McAdoo, who joined
the team in 1972. “He was the catalyst in making us the fastest team in the NBA.
I remember when I got to the Lakers, they talked about Showtime, and when
Phoenix had Steve Nash with Mike D’Antoni, they talked about getting downcourt
in seven seconds or less. Well, if they looked, they would see that the Buffalo
Braves did that long before Showtime or the Phoenix fast break existed. We were
just so fast.
“What made me think about Randy’s speed was when I got traded to the New York
Knicks. It took me about two or three weeks before I could get adjusted to Walt
Frazier and Earl Monroe. I used to get a rebound and throw it out there for
Randy and he would run under it and get it. I was throwing passes out to Frazier
and Monroe and they just would watch the ball go out of bounds. It was a big
adjustment for me.”
Smith began as a defensive specialist and grew so much as a scorer that he
averaged more than 20 points four years in a row. The Cavaliers and Knicks each
traded a first-round pick to get him. His then-record consecutive-games streak
would have gone on longer, but he had to wait 24 hours to clear waivers when he
went (by his own request) from the San Diego Clippers to the contending Hawks in
1983. The league ruled that the streak was over because he had missed a game.
No hard feelings. He was gracious when A.C. Green broke the mark in 1997,
showing up for the game (as did baseball’s Iron Man, Cal Ripken Jr.). Smith had
a history of graciousness.
While he was with the Braves, he bought a house for his mother in North
Carolina. A popular story in Buffalo says he once noticed two fans stranded in
the cold after a game, brought them home and established friendships with both.
Distance and stardom never kept him apart from Bellport. “He would come back in
the summers, and whenever he was there, he was great,” said Jim McGowan, who
coached Bellport in the 1980s and 1990s and whose wife was in Smith’s graduating
class. “Once the kids saw him, everybody wanted to challenge him. He was playing
two-on-two, three-on-three. The kids loved it.
“The first time he came in, he was like Joe Namath. He pulled up in a
Rolls-Royce and had a fur coat on. I said, ‘Weren’t you hot?’ He said, ‘Yeah,
but I wanted to make an impression.’ ”
Smith’s point was that Bellport’s teenagers should aspire and know they can get
somewhere. “He harped on going to class, getting an education and making
something out of your life,” McGowan said.
Bellport was shaken by the news in June 2009 that Smith, 60, died of a heart
attack while on a treadmill at Mohegan Sun, where he was an executive host.
Tears flowed. Tributes followed.
As Bullock said this week, “He represented Bellport to the best. He carried
himself well. It was good to see him do great.”
To this day, his successors in Bellport Clippers uniforms look up to him as they
reach down to touch the name emblazoned on their court.
RANDY SMITH
Born: Dec. 12, 1948, in Bellport
Died: June 4, 2009 (Age 60)
Vitals: 6-3, 180
High school: Bellport
College: Buffalo State
Drafted: 1971 by Buffalo Braves (seventh round)
NBA CAREER (976 games, 16.7 ppg)
Buffalo Braves* 1971-78
San Diego Clippers 1978-79, 82-83
Cleveland Cavs: 1979-81
Knicks 1981-82
Atlanta Hawks** 1983
*Buffalo Braves became the San Diego Clippers after the 1977-78 season
**Traded to Hawks in March, 1983
HONORS
+Held record of 906 consecutive NBA games (1772-83), broken in 1997 by A.C.
Green.
+ 1978 NBA All-Star Game MVP with 27 points in 29 minutes.
By Mark
Herrmann
mark.herrmann@newsday.com
Since 1983, Mark Herrmann has covered Brookhaven, Southampton and East Hampton
on the news side, and high schools, the Islanders,
the Mets and golf for Newsday sports. His assignments have included the Olympics, March Madness, the Triple Crown, Stanley Cup, Super Bowl and World Series.
