At 34.”That column always stuck with me; for years, I kept it with other sports writing clips that affected me in some way in a manila folder long since lost. Dr. Derek Smith is a Master Soul Healer, Mind Empowerment Coach and Spiritual Teacher. He was rehabilitating from yet another surgery years later when the Celtics signed him in December 1990, coveting his toughness and veteran presence. “Give them credit. His specialty by Divine mandate is to unblock and clear negative energies from the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies.Creator of the “Soul Mastery Academy”, and leader of several “Prayer for change” groups worldwide. Our early season matchup vs the Bulls and MJ was a classic battle. “He would be a very good pickup for the Celtics,’’ said Charles Barkley, his teammate with the Sixers for two years. He hoped to return the next season (“He is yet to see the real Derek Smith,’’ he said of coach Chris Ford), but the knee would not cooperate, and on Nov. 7, 1991, the Celtics ended the suspense when they signed veteran guard Rickey Green to fill his roster spot.“It was a fun, fun experience for me, and I wish it had lasted longer,’’ said Smith, who never played another NBA game.

Asked about his role in the twilight of his career, Smith said: ‘There was a time when I couldn’t guard a soul and I got paid to score 22 points a game. It did not escape the notice of Bird.“Bird wouldn’t stop talking about Smith, wouldn’t stop high-fiving him or hugging him,” wrote Wilbon upon the occasion of Smith’s passing. And if you don’t, I hope this helps explain why you should.I heard from a few of you asking about Smith after NBC Sports Boston’s re-airing of the decisive Game 5 of the 1991 playoff series between the Celtics and the Pacers.That is truly a classic game — Bird bangs his head on the court so hard late in the second quarter that play-by-play broadcaster Marv Albert later said it made the kind of thud he’d heard previously only at boxing matches.Larry, being Larry, returned in the third quarter and lit up the Pacers, including trash-talking sharpshooter Chuck Person, who pretended to be Bird’s rival, with a tour de force performance as the Celtics pulled away.Bird was the conqueror that day, but he had an unlikely sidekick. But re-watching all of these classic Celtics games in the absence of live sports right now restores more color and context to what we already remember or know to look up.It’s a delight to see Bird’s virtuoso shot-making and geometric-genius passing again as the details of an old game unfold.It’s a delight, too, to be reminded that Robert Parish was a quiet storm, Kevin McHale deployed post moves that laughed in the face of a double team, and Reggie Lewis was … well, he was just so good, and it still hurts to watch him and think of what should have been.And sometimes, you’re reacquainted with someone almost forgotten, and yet so worthy of being remembered well.Do you remember Derek Smith? Derek Smith, improbably perhaps to everyone but himself, helped them win perhaps the most memorable playoff series of Bird’s late career.For one night, it was as if he’d been a Celtic for life.Watching him again, 29 years after that special game and 24 years after his death, I’m going to do my best to remember him as if he was.

Now, I can only find the basket when I’m left totally alone. He was just the right kind of dude. He kind of had Celtic written all over him.”Smith’s moment in the Garden sun was fleeting. Play smarter. Everybody always says, ‘He played before I was born.’ Well, so what? YouTube clips can dish out an assist whenever Larry’s legend might dare begin to fade.Larry, he will forever stay familiar in our minds. But it was a young voice, one with old-fashioned values, but fresh ideas about implementing them. Thanks! Tragic loss when he passed. Babe Ruth was dead before I was born. Copyright 2017 drdereksmith | All Rights Reserved “… And afterward, Smith summed up his basketball odyssey about as eloquently as possible. I hope you do, because he deserves it. “Eat properly. Larry found me creeping around there a couple of times … It’s another chapter.”Said Wilbon this week: “Guys like Larry and Magic [Johnson], they would just cling to guys like him.

He’s got all the tools to be a great player, except for one.”“He doesn’t have any media attention,” Jordan said.Just five games after winning another showdown with Jordan and earning his praise, his career came crashing to the court during a November game against the Sonics. They had not.“Man, Derek was going to be a star as a player, and he was going to be a star as a coach,” said Wilbon. Because he was mature enough to have all of the old-school stuff without being old. He just had it. For one night, it was as if he’d been a Celtic for life. He is an experienced international school principal having led schools across Africa and Europe. “He had all the mental, psychological, and emotional touchstones you want from a player. You could see why Larry and the guys in that group would have loved him.

It was a voice you had to be behind the scenes to hear because Smith was an assistant coach, a lieutenant, for the most part unnoticed by the camera and the crowd. People don’t know who he is now.

Be tougher. Smith, who played just 12 games for the Celtics that year — two in the regular-season and 10 in the playoffs — scored 12 points, locked down Person in the second half, was on the receiving end of a couple of lovely Bird assists, and got a huge hug and an enormous ovation from the Garden fans when he checked out in the final inconsequential moments.Larry Bird hit his head on the parquet floor in that memorable playoff win over the Pacers.If you didn’t know better, you might have thought he was a Celtics legend based on his reception that day.But he was not. Derek first travelled to West Africa in 1995 to work as a volunteer maths teacher He had suffered severely damaged cartilage that required removal. That doesn’t mean I don’t know what he did.”Smith’s old teammates from his too-brief peak as a Clipper remember what was, if terribly, tauntingly briefly, and what could have been. in mathematics and an MA in Education Management and is currently pursuing a doctorate at Durham University where he is researching the impact of ICT in education in Africa. “Oh, he was special,’’ said Cedric Maxwell, a teammate on the 1985-86 Clippers. Sacrifice. Photography; Instagram; Contact; Dame Across the course of your life, you don’t meet a lot of people like him.“It’s sad.