How Smith almost reunited with Nuggets, but not as player
As the culminating moment of a career begins to slowly fade into increasingly distant memory, the image that will always endure in the mind of Ish Smith is the one he captured when he looked up.
Confetti plummeted toward him until it engulfed him like a realization.
“We won it,” he recalls thinking. “We won it.”
The singular emotion from that championship celebration that will always endure for Smith is indicative of how the 35-year-old thinks, how he makes decisions and how he ended up back in Charlotte this season.
“I was just thinking about all the stories, the storylines,” Smith told The Denver Post on Monday — somewhat fittingly, hours after 2023 became a thing of the past. “From Nikola (Jokic) being a 41st pick, that Denver took a chance on him, chose him over Nurk (Jusuf Nurkic), and him losing weight, getting into the gym and dedicating himself. Jamal Murray coming off an ACL. D.J. (Deandre Jordan) and the Clip Show and them not getting over the hump. Jeff (Green) with his heart surgery. Christian Braun coming in and plugging right in. Aaron Gordon taking a backseat from being a star.
“I could keep going and going. It’s like, everybody had their own story. And that’s why you see us all laughing, hugging, crying.”
Smith’s default setting, even in the moments after he won his first NBA championship with his recordsetting 13th team, was to savor the significance of the accomplishment for his teammates. In the summer months that followed, Smith’s talent for helping other players was a core theme as he weighed future options.
Those included, and nearly ended with, retirement from his playing career. After one glorious season with the Nuggets, Smith was a free agent. His wife gave birth to their second child, a boy, in August.
Smith’s family had lived in Denver while he played there, but Charlotte has always been HQ. It’s Smith’s hometown.
“We had settled in for a little bit, and we had a good little routine going,” he said.
Retirement from playing didn’t mean retirement from the pro basketball industry, though.
Before Smith signed with the Hornets on the last day of the offseason, he was on the verge of reuniting with the Nuggets in a front office role that he described to The Post as an apprenticeship. He would have been based out of Charlotte but with periodic trips to Denver, where he could shadow various people in basketball operations.
“I was gonna do some consulting, and start learning the business a little bit more,” Smith said. “Start transitioning to some front office. Some coaching. Who knows? I didn’t know, but I was just going. … I was gonna watch (general manager Calvin Booth), and then watch Coach (Michael Malone). Try to help out as much as possible. I just wanted to learn to see what I wanted to do.”
Smith’s goal was to figure out through experience what he wanted to do with his post-playing career. He was even set to enroll in a broadcasting class at Syracuse, organized by the National Basketball Players Association.
There were a handful of teams reaching out to Smith about signing him as a player for 2023-24, he said, but with a championship and another newborn, this seemed a natural endpoint.
Then, while he was on his way to a Wake Forest football game with his family — he played hoops for the Demon Deacons — the Hornets called. Smith discussed with his wife. He had played 37 games with Charlotte during the 202122 season before getting traded to Washington. The prevailing sentiment that his wife shared with him: “It’s home.”
Smith’s playing days were officially prolonged when he signed Oct. 24 to return to the Hornets.
“For me it was a situation where, like, how can I help the guys as much as possible?” he said. “I know I’m playing (right now), and dudes have injuries. But for me, it’s more or less, how can I help further a lot of guys’ careers, understand the game, have a long career? Whatever the case is. I’ve always tried to give lessons to people and try to figure out how I can help. So it was a great opportunity. It wasn’t even about playing. Like, if I played, cool, but if not, I was more like, ‘How can I help?’”
The idea of a veteran glue guy at the end of the bench mirrored Smith’s role in Denver, where he appeared in only 47 games (including the playoffs). Smith, Green and Jordan formed a formidable trio of that archetype last season — all three seeking their first career title. But Smith understood the minutia of the job would be different in Charlotte. He was hitching himself to a wagon that has been in perpetual rebuild mode throughout his career. The Hornets are young. Their ambitions aren’t immediate like Denver’s; they’re several years into the future, when Smith will likely no longer be on the roster.
“It’s been fun. Guys don’t understand it’s such a long season,” he said. “When I go back and look at last year, we had aspirations and we were one of those top-seven teams that knew we had a chance to win a championship. … We had our ups and downs last year, but we were pretty consistent with the one-seed. We didn’t finish the season strong. So for me, I correlate that to this year. We’ve got a long season. I don’t think the young guys understand it’s such a long season. We’ve got a lot of different seasons (within the season). So for us, we’re learning how to win.”
Staying in the league as a player has its perks — financially, obviously, but also sentimentally. If Smith had retired, he wouldn’t have been able to bask in the nostalgia of a championship ring ceremony Monday, when he made his return to Ball Arena. It was a perfectly timed road trip. Smith spent New Year’s Eve at a restaurant with Jordan and Jordan’s wife, though he wasn’t able to stay out too late. (“I’m old,” Smith said. “Like, AARP soon.”)
The future is still on his mind. For now, figuring out what’s next has just been delayed. Asked if he wants to be a general manager someday, Smith laughed.
“I want to learn from somebody first,” he said. “That job is crazy. Or maybe be an agent. I think a lot of guys get bad advice coming out of the draft.”
Giving good advice is an area where Smith already has sufficient experience.