Christopher Gerard Smith (born May 17, 1970) is an American former 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 ...

player who was a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run the team's offense by ...

Basketball career

Born in

Bridgeport, Connecticut Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the fifth-most populous in New England. Located in eastern Fairfield County at the mouth of the Pequo ...

, Smith played collegiately at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from H ...

. He left the

Huskies Husky is a general term for a dog used in the polar regions, primarily and specifically for work as sled dogs. It refers to a traditional northern type, notable for its cold-weather tolerance and overall hardiness. Modern racing huskies that ma ...

after scoring 2,145 points in his four years, an all-time record (this included another record, 1,140 points in

Big East Conference The Big East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference that competes in NCAA Division I in ten men's sports and twelve women's sports. Headquartered in New York City, the eleven full-member schools are primarily located in Northeast and ...

history), and also led the team in career three-point field goals with 242, being one of only two UConn players to score at least 500 points in three different seasons. A member of the UConn Basketball All Century Team, Smith was also nominated for the John Wooden Award, was named a McDonald's All American and was a member of an All-Big East first team. He played for the US national team in the

1990 FIBA World Championship The 1990 FIBA World Championship was the 11th FIBA World Championship, the international basketball world championship for men's teams. It was hosted by Argentina from 8 to 19 August 1990. The final phase of the competition was held at the Luna P ...

, winning the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receiv ...

. Smith was selected in the second round (34th overall) of the

1992 NBA Draft The 1992 NBA draft took place on June 24, 1992, at Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. The draft is considered to be one of the deepest in NBA history. The top three picks (Shaquille O'Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Christian Laettner) were conside ...

by the

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. Founded in 19 ...

. He played three seasons (224 total games) with the team, averaging 5.1 points, 2.8 assists, 1.3

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

and .5 steals per game. He continued to play for various franchises in the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA) (originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association) was a men's professional basketball mi ...

and Europe until 2000, when a series of injuries transitioned his career to sales and financial services. He received a B.A. in business administration, going on to work as a business development officer for both the People's Bank and its insurance subsidiary, Beardsley, Brown & Bassett.

Personal

Smith son, Christopher Smith Jr. is now the assistant coach of Indiana Wesleyan University. Smith is

cousin Most generally, in the lineal kinship system used in the English-speaking world, a cousin is a type of familial relationship in which two relatives are two or more familial generations away from their most recent common ancestor. Commonly, ...

of another basketball player, and point guard,

Mario Chalmers Almario Vernard "Mario" Chalmers (born May 19, 1986) is an American professional basketball player who last played for the Sioux Falls Skyforce of the NBA G League. He was selected as the 34th overall pick in the 2008 NBA draft by the Minnesota ...

, who also played in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball sports league, league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues i ...

, notably with the

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The club plays its home games at FT ...

.Heat acquire draft rights to Mario Chalmers
NBA.com, 26 June 2008

References

External links

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Basketpedya career data
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Chris 1970 births Living people 20th-century African-American sportspeople 21st-century African-American sportspeople 1990 FIBA World Championship players African-American basketball players American expatriate basketball people in Belgium American expatriate basketball people in France American expatriate basketball people in Israel American expatriate basketball people in Spain American men's basketball players Basketball players from Connecticut Competitors at the 1990 Goodwill Games Fort Wayne Fury players Goodwill Games medalists in basketball Grand Rapids Hoops players La Crosse Bobcats players Liga ACB players Limoges CSP players Minnesota Timberwolves draft picks Minnesota Timberwolves players Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Point guards Rockford Lightning players Shooting guards Sioux Falls Skyforce (CBA) players Sportspeople from Bridgeport, Connecticut UConn Huskies men's basketball players United States men's national basketball team players