Stevin L. "Hedake" Smith (born January 24, 1972) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player, who is also known for his involvement in the 1994 Arizona State

point-shaving In organized sports, point shaving is a type of match fixing where the perpetrators try to change the final score of a game without the intention of changing who wins. This is typically done by players colluding with gamblers to prevent a team fr ...

scandal.

Early life

Smith was born in

Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, Texas, the only son of Eunice Smith. He was an outstanding

high school basketball High school basketball, also known as prep basketball, is the sport of basketball as played by High school (North America), high school teams in the United States and Canada. Top high school athletes often go on to play college basketball after ...

player. He played at Arizona State University under

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

Bill Frieder William Samuel Frieder (born March 3, 1942) is a former basketball coach at Michigan Wolverines men's basketball, Michigan (1981–1989) and Arizona State Sun Devils men's basketball, Arizona State (1989–1997). Frieder's 1985–86 Michigan Wo ...

. His "Hedake" nickname originally came from his mother, who called her rambunctious child "Headache", but had to shorten the spelling for a personalized license plate.

College career

Stevin "Hedake" Smith played

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the Basketball positions, five positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position and is usually the shortest player ...

for

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

from 1991 through 1994, and was a two-time All-Pac-10 selection. However, he also became involved in the 1994 Arizona State point-shaving scandal along with ASU teammate Isaac Burton. Smith would bet on his own games that he was fixing and received $20,000 for shaving points in the game against

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Corvallis, Oregon, United States. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate degree programs and a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees through all 11 of the universit ...

on January 28, 1994. He was arrested in the summer of 1997, and in December 1997, Smith and Burton pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, admitting to taking bribes to fix four games in 1994 Smith was sentenced to one year and one day in prison. Smith holds the Arizona State career records for most three-point shots attempted and most three-point shots made.

Professional basketball career

After failing to make an

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

team after leaving college in 1994, Smith took his game overseas, playing for the

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team Somontano Huesca during the 1994–95 season. He also played for the Grand Rapids Mackers of the

Continental Basketball Association The Continental Basketball Association (CBA), originally known as the Eastern Pennsylvania Basketball League, and later as the Eastern Professional Basketball League and the Eastern Basketball Association, was a men's professional basketball m ...

(CBA) and was selected to the CBA All-Rookie Team in 1995. Over the next four years, Smith played for teams in the Philippines,

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and in the CBA. He won a CBA championship with the

Sioux Falls Skyforce The Sioux Falls Skyforce are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and are affiliated with the Miami Heat. The team has played its home games in the Sanford Pentagon since the 2013–14 ...

in 1996. He was selected to the All-CBA Second Team in 1997. During the 1997 NBA season, Smith signed two consecutive 10-day contracts with the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...

, and received his only NBA playing time. He played 60 minutes over eight games, scoring 14 points for a 1.8 per-game average. After his release from prison in 2000, Smith returned to Europe and his professional basketball career, playing for three different teams based in

from 2001 to 2003, in the Israeli League in 2004 and for

Dynamo Moscow MGO VFSO "Dynamo" (), commonly known as Dynamo Moscow (), is a Russian sports club based in Moscow. Founded by Felix Dzerzhinsky on 18 April 1923, Dynamo Moscow was the first institution created from the All-Union Dynamo Sports Club. Dynamo Mosco ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

for two seasons until 2006. In 2006–07, Smith joined Legea Scafati of the Italian

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

league.

Post-playing career

Stevin Smith later became the Vice President of the N.O.W. Program, a mentoring program for young people in the Dallas area. Additionally
Smith now educates student-athletes at NCAA colleges on his experience
working with gambling harm awareness education provider EPIC Global Solutions to deliver sessions in college settings.

In popular culture

Smith is the subject of an episode of the 2021

Netflix Netflix is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service. The service primarily distributes original and acquired films and television shows from various genres, and it is available internationally in multiple lang ...

documentary series '' Bad Sport''.

References

External links