Lakers jersey history No. 1 — Joe Smith
As the Lakers approach their 80th season of existence (they were founded back in 1946 as the Detroit Gems in the National Basketball League), LeBron Wire is taking a look at each player who has worn their jersey, whether it has been a purple and gold one or the ones they donned back in the Midwest during their early years.
Here, we take a look at Joe Smith, a big man who played in the NBA for 16 seasons.
Smith was a star at the University of Maryland, where he averaged 20.2 points and 10.7 rebounds a game over two seasons. He was named the AP Player of the Year and the Naismith College Player of the Year in 1995 before the Golden State Warriors made him the No. 1 overall pick in that year's NBA draft.
He averaged 15.3 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.6 blocks a game during the 1995-96 season and was named to the All-Rookie First Team. During the following season, he posted 18.7 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
However, that would be the apex of Smith's productivity in the NBA. In the years to come, he would bounce around from team to team, and by the late 2000s, he had become a definite journeyman.
Early in the 2010-11 season, the Lakers participated in a three-team trade where they sent out guard Sasha Vujacic and a 2011 first-round pick and received Smith, along with two future second-round picks and a big man named Sergei Lishouk.
Smith appeared in 12 games for Los Angeles and had a total of six points on 2-of-12 field-goal shooting, 18 rebounds, four blocks and three assists in 44 minutes. He got 11 minutes of playing time in five playoff games that year but didn't score a single point.
That would turn out to be the end of Smith's NBA career.
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