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 Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

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 20 ...

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 host city during the 1 ...

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

College career

Smith played four seasons of college basketball at

Stanford University 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 ...

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 United States Census, 2020, 2020 census. Stanford is ...

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, the ...

Statistics

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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 considere ...

, 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 were ...

by the

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

. After making the final roster with the Mercury, Smith would play under head coach

Sandy Brondello Sandra Anne "Sandy" Brondello (born 20 August 1968) is an Australian women's basketball coach, and the current head coach of the New York Liberty of the WNBA. Brondello played in Australia, Germany and the WNBA before retiring to become a coa ...

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 DeWanna Bonner (born August 21, 1987) is an American-Macedonian professional basketball player for the Connecticut Sun of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Bonner played college basketball for Auburn University. After a successf ...

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 i ...

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 "sapphir ...

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), ''Gems'' (Aerosmith album), 1988 *Gems (Patti LaBelle album), ''Gems'' (Patti LaBelle album), 1994 *G ...

at the 2014 FIBA Oceania Under-18 Championship 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 te ...

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 tournam ...

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, 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 th ...

and then lost to

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

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 The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

in their quarterfinal 79 to 55.

Statistics

WNBA

Regular season

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Phoenix Phoenix most often refers to: * Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore * Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States Phoenix may also refer to: Mythology Greek mythological figures * Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...

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

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

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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 s ...

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

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, 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