Alanna Smith (born 10 September 1996) is an Australian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

who for the

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA). She played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

. Smith was a member of the Australian Women's basketball team (Opals) at the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

. The Opals were eliminated after losing to the USA in the quarterfinals.

College career

Smith played four seasons of college basketball at Stanford University in

Stanford, California Stanford is a census-designated place (CDP) in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is the home of Stanford University. The population was 21,150 at the 2020 census. Stanford is an unincorporated area of ...

for the

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **'' Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **'' Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, ...

Statistics

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2015–16 , style="text-align:left;",

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, 34 , , 0 , , 11.8 , , .432 , , .333, , .659 , , 2.4 , , 0.4 , , 0.1 , , 0.7 , , 1.2 , , 5.3 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;",

, 38 , , 3 , , 19.3 , , .465 , , .317 , , .689 , , 5.4 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 1.6 , , 1.1 , , 9.1 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 35 , , 28.4 , , .474 , , .302 , , .531 , , 7.0 , , 1.2 , , 1.2 , , 1.7 , , 2.5 , , 13.5 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, 36 , , 36 , , 29.2 , , .515 , , .397 , , .730 , , 8.6 , , 1.9 , , 1.0 , , 2.1 , , 2.4 , , 19.4 , - , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 143 , , 74 , , 22.3 , , .482 , , .352 , , .663 , , 5.9 , , 1.1 , , 0.7 , , 1.5 , , 1.8 , , 11.9

Professional career

WNBA

Smith was selected as the eighth overall pick of the

2019 WNBA draft The 2019 WNBA draft was the league's draft for the 2019 WNBA season. On March 19, the league announced the draft would be held on April 10 at Nike New York headquarters. The first round was televised on ESPN2, and the second and third rounds we ...

by the

Phoenix Mercury The Phoenix Mercury are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season ...

. After making the final roster with the Mercury, Smith would play under head coach Sandy Brondello and alongside the likes of

Brittney Griner Brittney Yevette Griner (; born October 18, 1990) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women's natio ...

, DeWanna Bonner and

Diana Taurasi Diana Lorena Taurasi (born June 11, 1982) is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted by Phoenix first overall in the 2004 WNBA draft. Taurasi has w ...

WNBL

After a season abroad in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, Smith returned home to Australia after signing with the

Adelaide Lightning The Adelaide Lightning is an Australian professional women's basketball team competing in the Women's National Basketball League ( WNBL). The club is based in the city of Adelaide, South Australia. The club was formed in 1993 and they play ...

for the 2020–21 WNBL season.

National team career

Youth level

Smith made her international debut for the

Sapphires Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sa ...

at the 2011 FIBA Oceania Under-16 Championship in Canberra. Smith represented the Sapphires at the Under-17 World Championship in the Netherlands the following year, where they finished in fifth place. Smith then made her debut for the

Gems Gems, or gemstones, are polished, cut stones or minerals. Gems or GEMS may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Gems'' (Aerosmith album), 1988 * ''Gems'' (Patti LaBelle album), 1994 * ''Gems'' (Michael Bolton album), 2011 *Gems TV, a ...

at the

2014 FIBA Oceania Under-18 Championship Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrele ...

in Fiji. Smith represented the Gems at the Under-19 World Championship in Russia the following year, where they finished in third place and took home the bronze medal. She also earned a spot on the All-Tournament Team, awarded to the five strongest players of the tournament.

Senior level

At age 20, Smith was selected to the

Opals Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) is a spacecraft communication instrument developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was tested on the International Space Station (ISS) from 18 April 2014 to 17 July 2014 to demonstrate the t ...

team that competed in the

2017 FIBA Women's Asia Cup The 2017 FIBA Women's Asia Cup was the qualifying tournament for FIBA Asia and FIBA Oceania at the 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Spain. The tournament was held from 23 to 29 July in Bangalore, India. Before this edition, the tourname ...

in India. She made an immediate impact, averaging 10.8 points and 5.3 rebounds (2nd and 3rd-highest in the team, respectively) in 14.5 minutes per game, helping Australia finish the tournament as runners-up and qualify for the World Cup the following year. Her best game was the quarter final, in which she amassed 20 points and 9 rebounds in just 15 minutes of court time. In 2018, Smith represented the Opals in her first major international tournament – the

2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup The 2018 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, the 18th edition of FIBA's premier international tournament for women's national basketball teams, was held in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain from 22 to 30 September 2018. This was the first edition to ...

, held in Tenerife, Spain. She averaged 14.4 minutes of court time for 6.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game, with her best game yielding 10 points and 5 rebounds (vs Argentina). She also scored 10 points in the final vs USA. Smith, like all the other members of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Opals women's basketball team, had a difficult tournament. The Opals lost their first two group stage matches. They looked flat against

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

and then lost to China in heartbreaking circumstances. In their last group match the Opals needed to beat

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

by 25 or more in their final match to progress. This they did by 27 in a very exciting match. However, they lost to the USA in their quarterfinal 79 to 55.

Statistics

WNBA

Regular season

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

, align="left" , Phoenix , 18 , , 0 , , 7.4 , , .195 , , .111 , , .500 , , 1.9 , , 0.2 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 0.4 , , 1.1 , - , align="left" ,

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in ...

, align="left" , Phoenix , 19 , , 0 , , 15.6 , , .422 , , .233 , , .690 , , 3.6 , , 1.2 , , 0.3 , , 0.8 , , 1.0 , , 6.1 , - , align="left" ,

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October 2021 coup in Sudan; Crowd shortly after t ...

, align="left" , Phoenix , 18 , , 0 , , 6.5 , , .235 , , .190 , , .250 , , 1.3 , , 0.6 , , 0.4 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 1.2 , - , align="left" ,

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

, align="left" ,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th ...

, 9 , , 1 , , 12.9 , , .333 , , .240 , , .714 , , 2.7 , , 0.6 , , 0.9 , , 0.7 , , 0.9 , , 4.3 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 4 years, 2 teams , 64 , , 1 , , 10.4 , , .333 , , .206 , , .643 , , 2.4 , , 0.7 , , 0.4 , , 0.5 , , 0.6 , , 3.0

Postseason

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, align="left" , Phoenix , 2 , , 0 , , 8.0 , , .250 , , .500 , , 1.000 , , 1.0 , , 0.0 , , 0.5 , , 0.5 , , 1.0 , , 2.5 , - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , Phoenix , 5 , , 0 , , 5.2 , , .400 , , .400 , , 1.000 , , 2.0 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 0.2 , , 0.4 , , 3.2 , - , align="left" , Career , align="left" , 2 years, 1 team , 7 , , 0 , , 6.0 , , .368 , , .429 , , 1.000 , , 1.7 , , 0.1 , , 0.3 , , 0.3 , , 0.6 , , 3.0

References

External links

* *
Stanford Cardinal bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Alanna 1996 births Living people All-American college women's basketball players Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian women's basketball players Basketball players at the 2020 Summer Olympics Indiana Fever players Olympic basketball players of Australia Phoenix Mercury draft picks Phoenix Mercury players Power forwards (basketball) Sportspeople from Hobart Stanford Cardinal women's basketball players