The X-Factor: Charles Smith
“I always wanted to have as normal an existence as possible,” the New York Knicks starting power forward from 1992-96 said. “I wanted that for myself -- and I wanted that for my family.” Still, in addition to his natural down-to-earth inclinations, there was one particular incident that closed the deal. “For a little while, when I was in college, I was wearing jewelry,” Smith recalls. “One night, while I’m back home in Bridgeport hanging out with my friends at the mall, I hear one kid say ‘When I get up there I’m going to wear just as much if not more. I’m going to get a dukey-rope’ Then another said ‘Man, I’m going to get me one now. I’ll just snatch it.” Next day I see that same kid’s face in the paper -- he was arrested for robbery. That was the end of wearing jewelry for me.”
A NBA Championship ring would have been nice, though -- and Smith came awfully close to getting one as the big-winning Knicks -- Smith’s teams averaged 55 victories a season -- reached the Finals (and lost to the Rockets in seven) in 1994. “Believe it or not, the entire Finals experience is still a blur,” he smiles. “You are so incredibly focussed on the task ahead of you -- it is such a grind and everything is happening so fast -- the details are still coming back to us when I talk to my teammates to this day. ‘Oh, that happened?’ type of stuff. I was oblivious to all things around me. But what I do remember is that on that team we had a good nucleus of guys who had great respect for winning and everything that goes into it. Everyone on the roster were not necessarily best buddies but we really loved each other, and had great chemistry, on the floor.”
Charles’ closest friends on the team were “Rolando (Blackman) and Oakley,” he says. “Rolando, we’d sit together on the plane and talk about all kinds of topics. He knew a lot about a lot of different things. And Oak was just off-the-cuff, fun loving, always completely spontaneous. You could just do things with him, or call him at three in the morning to talk or go to the movies.”
Though Smith loved the idea of playing near his Connecticut home in New York -- he often visited Madison Square Garden with the University of Pittsburgh -- his Knick beginnings were not the smoothest. “The summer I was traded here was probably the most difficult of my life,” he says. “My first son was born in California and we were no longer there. My Dad passed away -- my one great regret is that he’s never seen me play a game in the pros -- and (Knicks Coach Pat) Riley wanted me to go from 260 (pounds) to 235.” The coach wanted the nearly seven-foot Smith to play both power and small forward -- and such vast versatility did not come without a price.
“I was always first and foremost a team guy,” says Smith. “I just went out there and played ball. Even with the Clippers, Larry (Brown) used me at center, at power forward, at small forward. I do whatever the team needs.” The Knicks needed Smith to do all the little things -- and to complement Patrick Ewing. “Let’s put it this way, playing next to such a dominating center, I knew how many plays they were going to run for me – usually two or three at the beginning of the game to get in the flow – and where my shots were going to come from,” he laughs.
Still, Smith was often viewed as the key guy. “One of my best New York memories is the playoff series against Charlotte,” he smiles. “The papers anointed me as the “X-factor. I played well and we won in five.”
“I learned a lot from Pat Riley,” says Smith. “And I mean that regarding things off the floor as much as on the floor. Riles was demanding but he articulated very clearly why the demands were placed upon an individual. So the main thing I learned was how much communication really mattered when it comes to leadership.”
That was an essential lesson to absorb for Smith who owned a number of businesses even while playing. “I never had to really deal with the transition out of the NBA because I was always in transition,” he says. “I was aware of the fact that retirement is an extremely difficult time for most players and I wanted to be prepared. Plus, I have always lived a normal life, always took my kids to the museum, always did all the things normal people would do.”
Smith has been running his foundation (with a $1.2 million budget) for going on 15 years now, providing after school programs and community development in Bridgeport. He ran a successful marketing company in L. A., then started his own technology business, developing a patent for customizable application for video ingesting he later sold for $ 7 million. Not surprisingly with such a background, his latest venture is with the NBA Players Association.
“I just took a job with them as the Northeastern Regional Director,” he says. “I will mainly work with players on their transition out of the league -- I think I have a lot to offer. I have had a lot of experiences that I can share with the guys in a lot of different areas. I don’t think there are too many things they can throw at me where I can’t help them.”
And that includes personal lives. “Probably the most amazing numbers I’ve ever come across are these,” says Smith. “During NBA careers, 90 per cent of the married couples stay together. Post-NBA, there is an 82 per cent divorce rate. I have four kids and I’ve been married for fourteen years. When you live a certain way, in the limelight for a long time, and then you have to do kind of a ‘360 on a dime’, a lot of different things transpire. And I think I know a lot about those particular pressure situations as well.”
