Michael Smith (born October 13, 1997) is an American 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 (appro ...

player for

Karşıyaka Basket Karşıyaka Basket is a Turkish professional basketball team located in Karşıyaka, İzmir, that competes in the Turkish Basketball Super League. It is a section of the multi-sport club Karşıyaka SK. The team also goes by the name of KSK, whic ...

of the

Basketbol Süper Ligi The Basketball Super League (; TBSL), also known as the Türkiye Sigorta Basketbol Süper Ligi for sponsorship reasons, is the top men's professional basketball division of the Turkish basketball league system. It replaced the former Turkish Bas ...

(BSL). He played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for the

Columbia Lions The Columbia University Lions are the collective athletic teams and their members from Columbia University, an Ivy League institution in New York City, United States. The current director of athletics is Peter Pilling. History Intercollegia ...

and the

Michigan Wolverines The Michigan Wolverines comprise 29 varsity sports teams at the University of Michigan. These teams compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA's NCAA Division I, Division I and in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except wo ...

. He was the 2019–20 Ivy League scoring champion and holds the

Big Ten men's basketball tournament The Big Ten men's basketball tournament is held annually at the end of the men's college basketball regular season. The tournament has been played each year since 1998. The winner of the tournament is designated the Big Ten Tournament Champion, a ...

single-game assists record (15). He has also led both the

Ivy League The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

(2017–18) and the

Big Ten The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference, among others) is a collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives in 1 ...

(2020–21) in assists per game.

Early life

As an eighth-grader in 2012, Smith led Burr Ridge Middle School in

Burr Ridge, Illinois Burr Ridge (formerly Harvester) is a village in Cook and DuPage counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Per the 2020 census, the population was 11,192. Geography Burr Ridge is located at (41.753030, -87.919998). According to the 2021 census ...

to an

Illinois Elementary School Association Illinois Elementary School Association is a statewide athletics and activities association serving elementary and middle schools in the U.S. state of Illinois. At the end of the 1920s, a handful of principals and coaches at several central Illi ...

state championship. He was a four-year varsity basketball starter at Fenwick High School in

Oak Park, Illinois Oak Park is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, adjacent to Chicago. It is the List of municipalities in Illinois, 26th-most populous municipality in Illinois, with a population of 54,318 as of the 2020 census. Oak Park was first se ...

. On January 18, 2016, as a senior, Smith scored a career-high 38 points in a 71–68 win over

Simeon Career Academy Neal F. Simeon Career Academy (formerly known as Westcott Vocational High School, Neal F. Simeon Vocational High School, Neal F. Simeon Career Technical Academy), locally known simply as Simeon, is a public four-year vocational school, vocational ...

. Five days later, he scored 34 points against

Riverside Brookfield High School Riverside Brookfield High School (RBHS) is a secondary school located directly between Riverside, Illinois, and Brookfield, Illinois, which educates grades 9-12. It serves the towns of Riverside, North Riverside, most of Brookfield, a small ...

. He led Fenwick to the

Chicago Catholic League The Chicago Catholic League (CCL) is a high school athletic conference based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. All of the schools are part of the Illinois High School Association, the governing body for Illinois scholastic sports. While some ...

(CCL) championship, scoring a game-high 27 points against

St. Joseph High School St. Joseph's School, St. Joseph's Catholic School, St Joseph's School, St Joseph's Catholic School, and variants are frequently used school names, and may refer to: Africa *St Joseph's School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Asia * St. Joseph Higher Secon ...

in the final. In his senior season, Smith averaged 19.3 points, 4.0 assists, 2.9 rebounds and 1.7 steals per game, helping his team to the Class 3A sectional final and a school-record 28 wins. He finished second in

Illinois Mr. Basketball The Illinois Mr. Basketball award is given to the person chosen as the best high school boys basketball player in the U.S. state of Illinois. Most of the award winners have gone on to play at the highest levels of college basketball, and many h ...

voting to Charlie Moore and left Fenwick with 1,800 career points, the second-most in school history behind

Corey Maggette Corey Antoine Maggette (; born November 12, 1979) is an American former professional basketball player who played 14 seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He became an analyst for Fox Sports. High school and college career Magget ...

. He was named

Pioneer Press The Pioneer Press publishes 32 local newspapers in the Chicago area. It is a division of Tribune Publishing, and is based in Chicago. The community newspapers are the main source of local news in Illinois communities such as Winnetka, Highland ...

All-Area player of the year and CCL player of the year. On March 26, Smith committed to play

for Columbia over Dartmouth. He held offers from many other

mid-major Mid-major conferences in American college sports at the NCAA Division I level are athletic conferences that are not among the power conferences. The grouping is most commonly used in men's college basketball to describe conferences outside of the ...

programs and was not rated by major recruiting services. Smith reopened his recruitment upon the departure of Columbia head coach Kyle Smith but was drawn back to program after a three-hour phone call with its new coach

Jim Engles Jim Engles (born August 18, 1968) is an American college basketball coach and the former coach of the Columbia Lions men's basketball team. He has also been the head men's basketball coach at the New Jersey Institute of Technology New Jerse ...

College career

Columbia

On November 11, 2016, Smith made his collegiate debut for Columbia, scoring 14 points in a 73–66 win over Stony Brook. He scored a freshman season-high 24 points in a 67–62 loss to

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

on January 21, 2017. As a freshman, Smith averaged 13.6 points and 3.4 assists per game, starting in all 27 games, and set the program's single-season first-year scoring record with 368 points. On December 10, he scored a sophomore season-high 28 points in a 73–68 loss to

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

. He finished the season averaging 17.6 points, which led his team and ranked second in the

, and a conference-high 4.6 assists per game. Smith collected second-team All-Ivy League and third-team All-Metropolitan honors. On November 16, 2018, his second game as a junior, he scored a then career-high 31 points in a 94–83 loss to Youngstown State. On December 2, Smith matched his career-high in scoring with 31 points and 5 steals in an 87–86 double

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

loss to

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic states, South Atlantic regions of the United States. It borders Maryland to its south and west, Pennsylvania to its north, New Jersey ...

. On December 12, it was announced that he would miss the remainder of the season with a

torn meniscus A tear of a meniscus is a rupturing of one or more of the fibrocartilage strips in the knee called menisci. When doctors and patients refer to "torn cartilage" in the knee, they actually may be referring to an injury to a meniscus at the top of ...

suffered five days earlier against Bryant. In eight games, Smith averaged 15.8 points and 5 assists per game. Smith returned to action in his senior season debut on November 5, 2019, scoring 22 points in a 65–63 loss to Lafayette. On February 15, 2020, he scored a career-high 38 points in a 77–73 double overtime loss to

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. It was the most points by a Columbia player in a single game since Buck Jenkins scored a school-record 47 points in 1991. One week later, Smith scored 37 points in an 83–65 loss to

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

. As a senior, he averaged a conference-leading 22.8 points, 4.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game while being named to the second team All-Ivy League. In his senior season, Smith scored 684 points, the second-highest single-season total in program history, and averaged the most points for an Ivy League player since 1989.

Michigan

On April 10, 2020, Smith announced that he would graduate and transfer to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

for his final season. He was attracted to the program because of head coach

Juwan Howard Juwan Antonio Howard ( ; born February7, 1973) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who is an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He previously served as the head coach ...

. Smith was ranked the 11th best graduate transfer according to ESPN and chose the Wolverines over offers from

Gonzaga Gonzaga may refer to: Places *Gonzaga, Lombardy, commune in the province of Mantua, Italy *Gonzaga, Cagayan, municipality in the Philippines *Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, town in Brazil *Forte Gonzaga, fort in Messina, Sicily Surname *House of Gonza ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

and

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

. In his debut for Michigan on November 25, Smith scored 16 points and had eight assists in a 96–82 win against

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

. On March 7, 2021, Smith scored 11 points and seven assists in a 64–70 loss to

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

. With his seven assists he surpassed 500 career assists. On March 12, Michigan opened its

2021 Big Ten men's basketball tournament The 2021 Big Ten men's basketball tournament was a postseason men's basketball tournament for the Big Ten Conference of the 2020–21 NCAA Division I men's basketball season which took place March 10–14, 2021. The tournament was originally to ...

play with a 79–66 victory over

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

in the quarterfinals. Michigan was led by Smith with 18 points and set a Big Ten Tournament record with 15 assists. He averaged 9 points and 5.3 assists per game, helping lead the team to the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament. On April 7, 2021, Smith declared for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual NBA draft, draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, Brooklyn, New York. The NBA draft returned to Brooklyn after 2020 NBA draft, the pre ...

, forgoing the additional season of eligibility the NCAA granted in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. His 5.3 assists per game also led the Big Ten conference.

Professional career

Sioux Falls Skyforce (2021–2022)

After going undrafted in the

, Smith joined the

Milwaukee Bucks The Milwaukee Bucks are an American professional basketball team based in Milwaukee. The Bucks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...

for the

2021 NBA Summer League The 2021 NBA Summer League was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The summer league c ...

. He was selected with the 13th pick of the second round of the

2021 NBA G League draft 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

by the

Sioux Falls Skyforce The Sioux Falls Skyforce are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and are affiliated with the Miami Heat. The team has played its home games in the Sanford Pentagon since the 2013–14 ...

. In 42 games during the

2021–22 NBA G League season The 2021–22 NBA G League season was the 21st season of the NBA G League, the official minor league basketball organization owned by the National Basketball Association (NBA). The prior season, the league played a shortened season with 18 teams ...

, he averaged 9.1 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game.

Wellington Saints (2022)

On May 3, 2022, Smith signed with the

Wellington Saints The Wellington Saints are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Wellington. The Saints compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at TSB Bank Arena. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as ...

for the

2022 New Zealand NBL season The 2022 NBL season was the 41st season of the National Basketball League. For the second year in a row, the league fielded 10 teams, with the only changes being the rebrand of the Auckland Huskies to Auckland Tuatara and Taranaki Mountainairs t ...

Astoria Bydgoszcz (2022–2023)

On August 4, 2022, he has signed with

Astoria Bydgoszcz Astoria Bydgoszcz, also known as simply Astoria, is a Polish multi-sports club most known for the professional men's basketball team, based in Bydgoszcz. Currently playing in the I Liga and in the past in the FIBA Korać Cup. History In the 2018� ...

of the

Polish Basketball League Polska Liga Koszykówki (PLK) (English language, English: Polish Basketball League), officially known as the Orlen Basket Liga due to its sponsorship by Orlen, is a professional men's club basketball list of basketball leagues, league in Poland. I ...

(PLK).

Rostock Seawolves (2023)

On July 11, 2023, he signed with

Rostock Seawolves Rostock Seawolves is a professional basketball club based in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. The club currently competes in the Basketball Bundesliga. The Seawolves play their home games in the Rostocker Stadthalle. Within the New sta ...

of the

Basketball Bundesliga The Basketball Bundesliga (BBL) (English language: ''Federal Basketball League''), for sponsorship reasons named easyCredit BBL, is the German basketball league system, highest level Sports league, league of professional club basketball in German ...

(BBL).

Karşıyaka Basket (2025–present)

On March 22, 2025, he signed with

of the

(BSL).

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2016–17 , style="text-align:left;", Columbia , 27 , , 27 , , 31.4 , , .401 , , .382 , , .821 , , 2.1 , , 3.5 , , 1.1 , , .0 , , 13.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Columbia , 27 , , 26 , , 34.0 , , .390 , , .308 , , .842 , , 2.6 , , 4.6 , , 1.1 , , .0 , , 17.6 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Columbia , 8 , , 7 , , 31.8 , , .415 , , .250 , , .853 , , 2.5 , , 5.0 , , 2.3 , , .0 , , 15.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Columbia , 30 , , 30 , , 37.7 , , .431 , , .339 , , .813 , , 4.1 , , 4.5 , , 1.5 , , .0 , , 22.8 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 28 , , 28 , , 31.6 , , .412 , , .418 , , .793 , , 2.8 , , 5.3 , , .5 , , .0 , , 9.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 120 , , 118 , , 33.7 , , .411 , , .343 , , .824 , , 2.9 , , 4.5 , , 1.1 , , .0 , , 15.9

Personal life

Smith was a fan of the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

while growing up. He became close friends with NBA player

Jimmy Butler Jimmy Butler III (born September 14, 1989) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Nicknamed "Jimmy Buckets", he is a six-time NBA All-Star, a five-time All-NBA Te ...

after meeting him at his high school team's

Jordan Brand Air Jordan is a line of basketball and sportswear shoes produced by Nike, Inc. Related apparel and accessories are marketed under Jordan Brand. The first Air Jordan shoe was produced for basketball player Michael Jordan during his time with the ...

apparel unveiling presentation in 2016. He has trained with and lived with Butler in the offseason and has been mentored by him. Smith is a friend of the popular basketball YouTuber KOT4Q.

References

External links

Michigan Wolverines bioColumbia Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Smith, Mike 1997 births Living people 21st-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century American sportsmen American expatriate basketball people in New Zealand American men's basketball players Astoria Bydgoszcz players Columbia Lions men's basketball players Karşıyaka basketball players Michigan Wolverines men's basketball players People from Burr Ridge, Illinois Point guards Sioux Falls Skyforce players Basketball players from Cook County, Illinois Basketball players from DuPage County, Illinois Rostock Seawolves players Wellington Saints players