Mikel Smith Gibbs (born 10 September 1963) is a retired American-Spanish 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.

College career

Born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Smith 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 USC–Spartanburg, beginning in 1982.

Professional career

Smith played for twelve years in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

, notably for

Joventut Badalona Club Joventut Badalona, S.A.D. () is a Spanish professional basketball club based in Badalona, Catalonia, Spain, playing in the Liga ACB and the EuroCup. Known to their fans as ''La Penya'' (in English, ''The Club''), it is one of only two teams ...

and

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

. He was the Spanish League's Finals MVP in 1992. With Joventut Badalona, he won the EuroLeague championship of the 1993–94 season, by winning the

1994 EuroLeague Final Four The 1994 FIBA European League Final Four, or 1994 FIBA EuroLeague Final Four, was the 1993–94 FIBA European League, 1993–94 season's Euroleague Final Four, FIBA European League Final Four tournament, organized by FIBA Europe. Club Joventut B ...

Spain national team

Smith naturalized during his professional basketball play in Spain, and he played internationally for the senior Spain national team at two

EuroBasket EuroBasket, also commonly referred to as the European Basketball Championship, is the main international basketball competition that is contested quadrennially, by the senior men's national teams that are governed by FIBA Europe, which is the E ...

tournaments,

1995 File:1995 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: O.J. Simpson is O. J. Simpson murder case, acquitted of the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman from the 1994, year prior in "The Trial of the Century" in the United States; The ...

and

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

External links

Mike Smith
in USCS Hall of Fame
ACB.com Profile
Living people 1963 births American expatriate basketball people in Spain American men's basketball players Basketball players from New York City Joventut Badalona players Liga ACB players Naturalised citizens of Spain Power forwards (basketball) Real Betis Baloncesto players Real Madrid Baloncesto players Spanish men's basketball players Spanish people of American descent USC Upstate Spartans men's basketball players {{Spain-basketball-bio-stub