Syracuse.com
Aug 8 2018
Terry Smith: From Bishop Ludden to an extraordinary life of pro basketball globetrotting
Former Bishop Ludden basketball star Terry Smith continues his long, eventful career in Europe
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Gallery: Former Bishop Ludden basketball star Terry Smith continues his long, eventful career in Europe
By Donna Ditota
syracuse.com
Syracuse, N.Y. — Terry Smith has stories, some of which he will share with a reporter from his hometown newspaper, some of which are probably better left unsaid.
There was the time in Ukraine in 2013-14, a particularly turbulent time in that troubled nation’s history, when he peered out the window of his Cherkasy home and saw police dressed in military gear firing into crowds of protesters. Later that season, a team official invited Smith into his office, told him the organization could no longer ensure his safety, reached into a safe to locate the remainder of his pay and issued him a plane ticket out of town.
Smith spent a week vacationing in Dubai while his agent found his next basketball destination.
Smith, who grew up in Syracuse’s Valley neighborhood and was an All-CNY guard at Bishop Ludden, holds an Armenian passport. He has sampled local European delicacies that included expensive Russian caviar (“really good”), Swiss horse steak (“not bad at all”) and French foie gras (“disgusting”). He survived the days of internet cafes, when the only way to connect with family and friends back home was to pay 5 Euros for each 30-minute Skype conversation. He thrived enough to own a luxury car and to create a comfortable life for himself. And some time this month, he will embark on his 11th professional basketball season.
Smith, 32, is a bona fide basketball globe trotter, having stitched together a 10-year career overseas despite his modest college basketball background.
“He’s an unbelievable story,” said Pat Donnelly, his coach at Bishop Ludden.
“His work ethic is why he’s still playing today,” said his trainer Vinny Scollo.
Smith’s agent, Sevag Keucheyan, says much of the same, citing Smith’s ability to take care of his body, his professionalism and his attention to details of his game as explanations for Smith’s longevity. His engaging personality, combined with his spirit of adventure and his cultural curiosity seem suited for his vagabond basketball existence.
(Warning: the video below includes adult language.)
He was a skilled but slender guard at Ludden, and played in Syracuse during the era of Andray Blatche, Greg Paulus and Josh Wright. Smith said the last time he “cried with real tears” was after his senior-year loss to CBA and Paulus in the Section III finals at a sold-out Manley Field House.
Donnelly described Smith as a combination point guard and shooting guard who could score and facilitate.
“He had a great pull-up jump shot. He’d go by people and pull up. Very quick in the open floor. Very unselfish. Very good ball-handler,” Donnelly said. “But his attitude was great. And he matured into that attitude. As a young player he was kind of sensitive to being corrected and yelled at. But as a junior and senior he bought into the role of being a leader.”
Smith was an excellent student. His mother, Mary, insisted on his attention to school work, his grades a sticking point in his basketball participation. Smith was also a stealth musician. One day, as Ludden players waited for a locker room to open for a road game, Donnelly heard music coming from a hallway. When he investigated, he discovered Smith at the piano. Turns out, Smith played for eight years.
Smith would grow to be 6-foot-2 but his skinny high school body discouraged Division I coaches from offering him scholarships, Donnelly said. He wound up at Mercyhurst after a coach there “guaranteed” Smith would play professionally, a promise the wide-eyed 18-year-old took seriously.
At Mercyhurst, he set the school record for made 3-pointers (213), scored 1,384 career points (6th in school history), was 10th all-time in assists and fourth in steals. And after he graduated, a member of the coaching staff made good on his pledge, introducing Smith to a contact in a small German professional league. Smith took his first paying job at Monchengladbach, a city of about 260,000 located near Dusseldorf and Cologne.
He was excited and nervous to begin a basketball journey he dreamed would culminate one day in the NBA.
“My first experience was total culture shock. I had never been out of the country. I was in a place that doesn’t speak my language,” Smith said. “It was the first time being in a place where English was not their first language. How they eat, the architecture in Europe — it was much different, just like life in Europe was so different. I was really confused.”
But Smith is nothing if not industrious. He adopted a “roll with it” attitude and adapted. And he performed on the basketball court.
He parlayed those first pauper-like seasons into bigger, better contracts for bigger, better teams and leagues. He played in Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Croatia, Turkey, France, Russia, Spain. Along the way, he met Keucheyan, who saw him play in Croatia, considered him the best player in that league and wanted to represent him.
Smith played against Luka Doncic (Real Madrid), the No. 3 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, formed a friendship with former Kansas star Svi Mykhailiuk (Ukraine), played against Rudy Fernandez (Real Madrid) and Shane Larkin (Spain). He paired with former Illinois star Dee Brown to win a championship in Bulgaria, one of the highlights of his professional career. He played for Tony Parker’s team in France and was treated kindly and professionally when an ACL tear finished his season there.
The real money started rolling in, Smith said, once he reached Ukraine.
“In the beginning, it was very nerve-wracking,” he said. “Coming from a small school in Mercyhurst, I really had to make my way in the rankings. Every year I was improving. I was playing well and I was just looking for a bigger deal. Every summer I was just hoping for that shot to play at the next higher level. I didn’t know if it was coming or not. But God-willing, bigger contracts were coming, better leagues were coming.”
Smith hopes those contracts continue to materialize. He figures his body, with its 4 to 5 percent body fat and its still-explosive athleticism, can buy him another five more years playing abroad. Keucheyan, who is based in Switzerland and has represented Smith for eight years, continues to pursue deals for Smith “for the highest level in Europe.”
Last season, at Hyeres-Toulon in France’s Pro A League, Smith averaged 10.4 points, a team-best 4.2 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game. He made 40 percent of his 3-point shots.
“We will change our optic in the next three or four years, I believe,” Keucheyan said. “Terry is still in top shape.”
Over the course of a couple hours, in a gym in Liverpool last week, Smith worked on strength, flexibility and mobility. Scollo, who also trains Latavius Murray, has known Smith since eighth grade, has shepherded him through a devastating ACL injury and rehab and continues to sculpt sessions that are challenging, yet mindful of Smith’s age and recovery needs.
“Obviously he was going against the odds and was a little bit of a late bloomer,” Scollo said. “Terry could have hung it up two years in. And Terry decided not to. As long as I’ve known Terry, he’s had the work ethic. That’s why he’s still playing today.”
Keucheyan has completed negotiations for his latest deal for Smith, who expects to announce a decision on his 2018-19 destination any day now. Smith wants to ensure the “right situation,” which means a team that pays well, pays on time and employs a coach who understands that burdening his players with four-hour practices (“yes, that happens”) translates to late-season burnout.
Smith, said Keucheyan, has been an easy sell.
“He is very serious about his work and off the court, he is a fan favorite. Great guy in the locker room,” Keucheyan said. “Every team where he went wanted to bring him back for an extra year.”
He has friends across the globe, but Smith returns home to Syracuse each summer, where people close to him joke about him becoming increasingly European. He has dinner with Donnelly and his wife, Laurie, each summer and still considers the Ludden coach a pivotal mentor. Donnelly cautions that meeting Smith means “you’ll fall in love with him.”
“I think an awful lot of Terry,” Donnelly said.
Meanwhile, Smith has his stories. There was that time in Armenia. Smith, newly out of rehab for his ACL and fearful that his career might be over, took a job in Armenia, which was trying to establish itself as a pro basketball possibility. To entice Americans to play there, Armenia offered dual citizenship — coveted currency in international basketball.
Since most countries cap the number of Americans on its roster, holding an Armenian passport would be advantageous. Smith said the money and the opportunities opened up with that passport. Guys, he said, were paying women to marry them to secure one.
He talked about cold so pronounced it burned his face in Russia, about the commotion he caused at various international airports with his Armenian passport. He talked about his 2016-17 season with Joventut Badalona in Spain’s acclaimed Liga ACB, his closest approximation to the NBA. He smiled about most of those memories.
“I wouldn’t change anything for the world,” Smith said. “I saw so much. I experienced so much these 10 years. I’m just really grateful and thankful that I was able to play and come back from such a tough injury. I was just blessed. Met so many good people. Did so many things that I would never have imagined. For me, it’s really been a blessing.”