TRUE CHAMPION: Katie Smith, 39, who is spending her final WNBA season with the Liberty, has enjoyed a career full of championships and gold. (
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Katie Smith is what one would call a “basketball lifer.”
From humble beginnings in an independent basketball league to wearing Olympic gold, Smith has experienced virtually everything basketball has to offer. Wherever she goes, she wins — Smith has two American Basketball League (ABL) and WNBA championships, along with three Olympic gold medals and two FIBA world championships.
But that history of winning has hit a bump in the Big Apple. The Liberty are just 7-11 at the All-Star break, having lost seven of their past nine games. But that merely is footnote in a triumphant career.
Recently, Smith announced she will retire from the WNBA at the end of this season. Her 15th year in the league will serve as her last. She saved the Big Apple for the end, and the road she traveled to get here from Logan High School in Columbus, Ohio, was anything but direct.
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AFTER playing her college basketball at Ohio State, Smith began her pro career playing for the Columbus Quest of the now-defunct ABL.
“It was fun because I played in Columbus, where I played my college ball,” Smith recalled in a telephone interview. “There was that familiarity. It was a ‘grassroots’ league, and we spent a lot of time in the city getting to know the fan base.
“We would have ‘ticket-sale parties,’ where we would go over to somebody’s house and try to sell tickets. We would go to bars after games so the fans could mingle with us. We dressed up to go trick-or-treating.”
That dynamic changed after she moved to the WNBA — a move necessitated by the ABL folding in December 1998. Smith was allocated to the Minnesota Lynx.
“You already had your corporate sponsors [in the WNBA],” she said. “I mean, you still did [community] appearances and things like that, but most of the other stuff [such as ticket sales and marketing] was already taken care of.”
After averaging 11.7 points per game in her rookie season, 2000 served as a breakout season. Smith’s scoring average nearly doubled, to 20.2 points.
Following that season, she was chosen for her first Olympic team.
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POLITICAL unrest has marred the Olympics before, and Smith’s maiden Games, in Sydney, were no exception.
“In 2000, we were in Melbourne during the protests [the S11 protests against meetings of the World Economic Forum],” she said. “There was a blockade all around the hotel. We actually had to have a covert operation just to get out of the hotel to go practice. The hotel was connected to a mall, so we walked all the way through the mall, out a door, across a bridge, and onto our bus.
“We walked through the protestors. When we left for Sydney, we left in the middle of the night to get out without any interference.”
Once in Sydney, Smith made the most of her first Olympics, averaging 6.8 points as the United States went 8-0 and repeated as gold medalists.
The following season was her best in the WNBA. Her 23.1 points per game was good enough to win the scoring title and earn First Team All-WNBA honors.
That winter, Smith went overseas to Poland, playing for Lotos Gdynia and helping them reach the EuroLeague Women final. She said the transition to living in a foreign country was relatively seamless.
“I’m pretty flexible, so it wasn’t a shock,” she said. “I had great teammates, and one of my closest teammates spoke English.”
Though Smith adapted well to her new country, there were some differences.
“At the movie theaters, they showed movies in English with Polish subtitles,” she said. “The theater had assigned seats. There could literally be five people in the theater, and they’d all be right next to each other.”
Nevertheless, she wasn’t over there to see movies — she was there to play basketball, and did so in front of ardent supporters.
“Our fans were diehards,” she said. “They brought drums, bells and sirens [to the games]. It’s on another level over there — we played in a small arena and it was packed and loud.”
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FOLLOWING her time in Poland, Smith came back to the WNBA and returned to the Lynx. In July 2005, she was traded to Detroit.
Her four-plus seasons in Detroit, where she played for Bill Laimbeer — now her coach in New York — produced two WNBA titles and a 2006 Finals MVP. Her two championship seasons were bookends for gold medals in 2004 (Athens) and 2008 (Beijing).
When she arrived in Beijing with the national team, they were greeted by quite the spectacle.
“We’re at the airport,” she said. “We’re getting on our bus, and the [mens’ team was] getting on theirs. These fans were chasing their bus down the road. They just wanted to see them — Kobe [Bryant], Dwyane [Wade], LeBron [James], etc. They really are global superstars, and it was cool to see.”
Her international success wasn’t just limited to the Olympics. She also was a member of the 1998 and 2002 teams that won the FIBA World Championship.
“The world doesn’t look at it the same way [as the Olympics], but you have more teams. It’s like the World Cup of basketball,” Smith said. “Brazil [where the team finished third in 2006] was definitely different, because most of the people were cheering against us. Sometimes, after the game, the people would say things to us about Americans and the United States, and it is what it is.”
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HER international career now complete, Smith now is allowing her pro career to come to a close. It’s a career Smith once dreamed about, but never in her wildest dreams could she have envisioned becoming this successful.
“When I was growing up, my main goal was to be an Olympian. Professional basketball only existed overseas,” she said. “I just wanted to play in the Olympics and then move on into a career.
“To be able to be in that ‘pool’ and get your feet wet in the World Championships, and then move on to the Olympics, it was definitely something that I had always wanted to be a part of. It was really special to see it come to fruition. So many people had a hand in that.”
jdemarzo@nypost.com