Josh Smith is Awesome!
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Hailey Hurowitz
12/1/12
1A
THe Hawks are off today prior to opening the regular season Friday against the Rockets. Josh Smith admits the chip is still squarely on his shoulder even as he piles up statistics few in NBA history have amassed. If he remains healthy for his ninth season Smith will become the 24th player in league history to reach 10,000 points, 5,000 rebounds, 2,000 assists and 1,000 blocks. There are only eight players to do it with one team. Smith has career totals of 9,044 points (needs 956), 4,768 rebounds (needs 232), 1,849 assists (needs 151) and 1,304 blocks. If he puts up his career averages this season, he will reach the points milestone in 53 games, the rebounds in 29 games and the assists in 50 games. The Hawks used the 17th overall selection of the 2004 draft to pick Smith straight out of high school. While some considered the pick a long-shot, Smith believes quite the opposite. By comparison, Childress is playing with his third NBA team, with a stop in Greece, and has 3,534 career points. Of the 28 other first-round picks in his draft, 11 are not in the league. That includes four players taken ahead of Smith. Smith likely won’t be the only player to reach the multiple milestones this season. Rasheed Wallace needs just 12 assists and Shawn Marion needs 140 assists. Smith, who will become an unrestricted free agent following the season, will join Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson, Patrick Ewing, Karl Malone, Julius Erving, Tim Duncan, Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett to accomplish the feat with the same team.
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Smith is from College Park and played at McEachern High before finishing at Virginia’s Oak Hill Academy, enjoyed being a part of the group that turned the fortunes of the organization. The team opens the regular season Friday in search of its sixth straight trip to the postseason. Larry Drew has been with the Hawks for Smith’s entire tenure, first as an assistant and now entering his third season has head coach. He has seen Smith mature on and off the court into a player he entrusts with a captaincy. The Hawks and Smith will not talk of the contract during the season. They will wait until the summer when Smith can test free agency and the Hawks can offer extra years on a contract offer. While his future in Atlanta has at least one more chapter to be done, Smith plans to keep his focus away from outside distractions. The stats they just keep coming.
link
http://blogs.ajc.com/hawks/2012/11/01/atlanta-hawks-smith-on-verge-of-statitistical-milestone/
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