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Randy Smith (basketball)

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American basketball player
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Randy Smith
Personal information
Born(1948-12-12)December 12, 1948
Bellport, New York, U.S.
DiedJune 4, 2009(2009-06-04) (aged 60)
Norwich, Connecticut, U.S.
Listed height6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High schoolBellport (Brookhaven, New York)
CollegeBuffalo State (1968–1971)
NBA draft1971: 7th round, 104th overall pick
Selected by the Buffalo Braves
Playing career1971–1983
PositionShooting guard
Number9, 7
Career history
1971–1979Buffalo Braves / San Diego Clippers
1979–1981Cleveland Cavaliers
1981–1982New York Knicks
1982–1983San Diego Clippers
1983Atlanta Hawks
Career highlights and awards
Career NBA statistics
Points16,262 (16.7 ppg)
Assists4,487 (4.6 apg)
Steals1,403 (1.7 spg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference Edit this at Wikidata

Randolph Smith (December 12, 1948 – June 4, 2009) was an American professional basketball player who set the NBA record for consecutive games played. From 1972 to 1982, Smith played in every regular season game, en route to a then-record of 906 straight games (since broken by A.C. Green). In college, he was a Division II All-American basketball player, soccer player and track athlete. He was born in Bellport, New York.

Early life

Randolph Smith was born on December 12, 1948, in Bellport, New York. He attended Bellport High School in Brookhaven, New York, where he excelled in basketball.

College career

Smith was an outstanding all-around athlete at Buffalo State College, earning All-American honors in three sports: basketball, soccer and track. At Bellport High School on Long Island, Smith was a standout on the soccer and basketball teams, and also set a state high jump record of 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m). However, it was on the basketball court that Smith shone brightest, teaming with Durie Burns to lead the Bengals to three straight conference championships, including a trip to the Final Four of the NCAA Division II Tournament in 1970, where Smith earned All-Tournament honors.

Professional career

Buffalo Braves / San Diego Clippers (1971–1979)

Smith surprised everyone in training camp, and he made the final roster cuts. Despite standing only 6-foot-3, he was assigned to play forward. He averaged 13.4 points per game in his rookie season. Smith continued to improve beyond expectation, drawing on his tremendous speed, quickness and leaping ability. His style of play, along with contemporaries like Julius Erving, marked by fast breaks and "above the rim" ball movements influenced the offensive style of the NBA in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Playing alongside league scoring champion Bob McAdoo, Smith averaged 21.8 points per game in the 1975–76 season, and was named to the All-NBA Second Team.

The highlight of Smith's career was the 1978 NBA All-Star Game, where he came off the bench to lead all scorers with 27 points, and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.

Smith played for seven years for the Braves until the franchise became the San Diego Clippers in 1978. That first year with the Clippers, Smith had his fourth consecutive season averaging over 20 points per game.

Cleveland Cavaliers (1979–1981)

In 1979, Smith was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he was named team captain and played for two years.

New York Knicks (1981–1982)

Smith spent the 1981 season with the New York Knicks.

Return to San Diego (1982–1983)

The next season, Smith moved back to San Diego for another season.

On November 3, 1982, Smith played in his 845th consecutive NBA game, breaking Johnny Kerr's iron man record. The game was a 130–111 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in which Smith started and scored 14 points. Smith's iron man streak ended at 906 games when he played his last game with the Clippers on March 13, 1983. He had requested to be waived to play for a contender late in the 1982–83 NBA season and he missed a game while waiting to clear waivers. The record was later surpassed by A.C. Green in 1997.

Atlanta Hawks (1983)

Smith was traded to the Atlanta Hawks, where he played 15 games before retiring.

NASL

In early 1975 at age 26, while nearing the height of his basketball career, Smith turned many heads at a tryout for the expansion Tampa Bay Rowdies of the North American Soccer League. The Rowdies' management had hoped to sign the two-time college soccer All-American for the outdoor season as one of their "required" American players; however, his contract with the Hawks would not allow him to play professional soccer at the time. A year later while in between basketball contracts, the Rowdies gave him another look, but it wasn't meant to be. After a third and final tryout in 1977, Rowdies coach Eddie Firmani felt that the combination of playing pro basketball and not playing any soccer for so long had diminished Smith's soccer skills too much.

Executive and coaching career

After retiring as a player, Smith was an NBA league executive whose duties included assisting former players in need, and he was a coach in the Continental Basketball Association before working at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, where he worked in marketing.

Post-playing career

Smith was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island in the Basketball Category with the Class of 1990. He was inducted into the Greater Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.

On June 4, 2009, Smith died in Norwich, Connecticut, after a heart attack during a workout. He's buried at the Forest Lawn East Cemetery, Weddington, NC.

NBA career statistics

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game
 FG%  Field goal percentage  3P%  3-point field goal percentage  FT%  Free throw percentage
 RPG  Rebounds per game  APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game
 BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game  Bold  Career high

Regular season

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1971–72 Buffalo 76 – 27.6 .482 – .622 4.8 2.5 – – 13.4
1972–73 Buffalo 82 – 31.7 .443 – .727 4.8 5.1 – – 14.8
1973–74 Buffalo 82 – 33.5 .492 – .712 3.8 4.7 2.5 0.0 15.5
1974–75 Buffalo 82 – 36.6 .484 – .800 4.2 6.5 1.7 0.0 17.8
1975–76 Buffalo 82 – 38.6 .494 – .817 5.1 5.9 1.9 0.0 21.8
1976–77 Buffalo 82 – 37.7 .467 – .762 5.6 5.4 2.1 0.1 20.7
1977–78 Buffalo 82 – 40.4 .465 – .800 3.8 5.6 2.1 0.1 24.6
1978–79 San Diego 82 – 37.9 .455 – .813 3.6 4.8 2.2 0.1 20.5
1979–80 Cleveland 82 – 32.6 .452 .189 .823 3.1 4.4 1.5 0.1 17.6
1980–81 Cleveland 82 – 26.8 .466 .036 .815 2.4 4.4 1.4 0.2 14.6
1981–82 New York 82 40 24.8 .465 .273 .808 1.9 3.1 1.1 0.0 10.0
1982–83 San Diego 65 16 19.4 .489 .188 .863 1.4 3.0 0.8 0.0 9.1
1982–83 Atlanta 15 0 9.5 .439 .000 .929 0.5 0.9 0.1 0.0 4.7
Career 976 56 32.2 .470 .155 .781 3.7 4.6 1.7 0.1 16.7
All-Star 2 0 22.0 .714 – .833 4.0 4.5 1.5 0.5 17.5

Playoffs

Year Team GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG
1974 Buffalo 6 – 37.8 .400 – .650 4.3 4.5 1.7 0.2 14.2
1975 Buffalo 7 – 40.9 .476 – .867 4.3 7.0 2.6 0.1 18.0
1976 Buffalo 9 – 42.9 .503 – .837 5.8 8.6 1.6 0.0 22.6
1983 Atlanta 2 – 7.5 .200 – 1.000 0.5 2.0 0.5 0.0 3.0
Career 24 – 38.1 .465 – .816 4.5 6.5 1.8 0.1 17.5

See also

References

  1. ^ Goldstein, Richard (June 6, 2009), "Randy Smith, N.B.A. Iron Man, Dies at 60", The New York Times
  2. "Clippers' Smith NBA Iron Man". USA Today. November 4, 1982.
  3. Groel, Connor (December 22, 2019). "Beyond the Streak: The Iron Men of Sports". Medium. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  4. "SPORTS PEOPLE; Smith Ends Streak". New York Times. March 17, 1983. Retrieved April 27, 2022.
  5. "St. Petersburg Times - Google News Archive Search".
  6. "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
  7. "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
  8. "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
  9. "The Evening Independent - Google News Archive Search".
  10. Northrop, Milt (June 4, 2009), "Randy Smith, former Brave, dies at 60", The Buffalo News, archived from the original on June 11, 2009

External links

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1970 NCAA Soccer First-Team All-America
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