''I'm not afraid to tell you anymore that I was hurt, because I was,'' Smith said. ''Smith's first practice with the Mavericks ended with him storming off the floor in front of television cameras. And folks back home hope he gets it. ''I'm just working as hard as I can, just in case somebody calls me up. The state took custody of him and five siblings. ... Leon's a good kid with a great heart.

"I thought it was terrible," says Robert Harris, chief deputy Cook County public guardian, who watched over the boys as wards. An aunt. His flamboyant high school coach. ''I think it just threw him a little bit,'' said Doris Bauer, the woman who ran the Lydia Home, where Smith lived from age 5 to 13. I've known that for quite some time and I hope he gets it. He played in the NBA, the CBA, the USBL and the IBL, and abroad in Puerto Rico and Argentina.. Smith was raised in a foster home, called Lydia Children's Home, as a ward of the state of Illinois due to neglect from his parents when he was five years old. Join Facebook to connect with Leon Smith and others you may know. Leon did not have that support. I'm trying to make it to the majors.

CHICAGO - Leon Smith was beaming that June night, and who could blame him: At 18, he was about to become a millionaire. "I'm really ready to take on responsibility now. ''A lot of these kids have families, and their families could show them how to handle themselves in certain situations,'' he said. After being released from the hospital, he returned two weeks later to Chicago, where he was arrested twice within two days for threatening Pondexter and damaging her mother's car. ''Don Nelson defended the team's actions and insisted that there was a support system for Smith.

commissioner, said. Then he and his girlfriend, Cassie Pondexter, a 16-year-old basketball star in Chicago, broke up.On Nov. 14, Smith swallowed the aspirin tablets and was found by a friend, passed out on the floor of his Dallas town house, with green war paint smeared on his face. Then he said he wanted to go pro.The downward spiral in Dallas began almost immediately.At Leon Smith's first pro practice at rookie camp, assistant coach Donnie Nelson ordered players to run extra wind sprints.
Economically, emotionally, psychologically or whatever, they need more support than we're currently giving them. I'm in Triple A right now.

On this day in Houston, he looks at the rim and down at his feet behind the 3-point line. "Doris Bauer, who ran Lydia House and became close with the boys, says the brothers were competitive and inseparable. But if we're going to draft these young kids, individual teams are going to have to install the proper support systems. this season.Smith and the people around him understand there are more important hurdles to clear.

Leon Smith profile page, biographical information, injury history and news "People have been pretty fair," says Matt Muehlebach, his second agent, fired in January. . He was escorted by two members of the NBA Players' Association assistance program.As they hustled him into a black Cadillac, his mother rushed to the car and peered in. ''Bottoms up!''
He flung his jersey to the floor and stormed off to the locker room.TV crews recorded the confrontation. "After several years, their mother wanted her sons back. "Weeks later, Smith probably reinforced that impression.According to Chicago police, he flashed a handgun at his former girlfriend outside her high school, got out of jail, then broke the windows of her mother's car and rammed it with his truck.Hearing the news, Nelson said: "The young man is in serious need of help. ''Smith had long dreamed of playing in the N.B.A., and he had no shortage of elders and peers to help nurture the fantasy. No one was going to tell him he couldn't. player who skipped college and turned pro. View the profiles of people named Leon Smith. Smith says as he releases a rainbow jump shot from 25 feet away on the left baseline.The ball passes gently through the net at the Westside Tennis Complex, where the Rockets practice in the morning and a 19-year-old trying to make a comeback practices in the afternoon. Leon was not a quick adjuster. He returned every penny in change when he ran fast-food errands for coaches. You're rich now. Leon was alone again. But Leon was a different kid from a different background.He had the raw talent. "I want to play," he recently told TV station KRIV in Houston, where he moved after being released from a psychiatric program in Dallas. "Others have jumped from high school to the pros in recent years.Kevin Garnett did it, joining the Minnesota Timberwolves.


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