Mike Smrek – Two NBA rings and a Croatian connection
Written by Nick Ruzich
Wednesday, 29 April 2009 22:29
Mike Smrek – Two NBA rings and a Croatian connection
L.A. LAKERS feat. MIKE SMREK: back-to-back NBA Champs from 1987 and 1988 perform "Just say NO to drugs". Two decades later, some international scouts share opinion that this young man from Croatia could be the second coming of the Canadian center.
Mike Smrek was born in the small town of Port Robinson Ontario and didn’t start playing basketball until grade 11, at the insistence of a teacher, when he reached a height of 7’0.Instilled with a strong work ethic gained from growing up and working on a farm, Smrek was able to turn his late start in basketball to a scholarship at nearby Canisus College in Buffalo, New York.He improved his numbers each year, averaging 15.8 PPG and 6.9 RPG with a 60.1% field goal percentage.
That was enough to get him drafted in the first round, 25th overall to the Portland Trailblazers, who immediately traded him to the Chicago Bulls.He played one season with Chicago, where he was teammates with a young Michael Jordan and future Hall-of-Famer George “The Iceman” Gervin.However he only got into 38 games, averaging 10.7 minutes and 2.8 points per game.
After the season he was waived and was signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers.There he spent the next two seasons playing for the back-to-back World Champions and NBA greats Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy.Despite owning 2 championship rings, he was once again only a part-time player, playing a combined 83 games and averaging less than 10 minutes around 2.5 points per game.
Mike Smrek and Lakers coach Pat Riley
For the next 4 years he bounced around 4 teams, playing at different times for the San Antonio Spurs, LA Clippers and the Golden State Warriors.His most productive year was in 1988-89 with the Spurs, where he played 43 games and averaged 4.5 points, 3 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game.He finished his NBA career in the 1991-92 season, playing only 2 games for the Warriors.
That summer he played for Canada at the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifying tournament, where they failed to qualify for the 1992 Olympics.Smrek was the leading scorer for Canada in their game against the original Dream Team, scoring 14 points and dunking over David Robinson as one of the teams highlights.
With no opportunities left in the NBA, Smrek played one season in the Greece playing for Dafni Athina A.O. before a recurring foot injury that plagued him over his career forced him to retire at the age of 30.However he did suit up for Canada once again at the 1994 World Championships in Toronto, where he played sparingly and averaged 4.1 points and 3 rebounds per game (including 5 points and 4 rebounds versus Croatia).
Here’s where the Croatian connection comes in.First of all, his wife, Sonja, is a Croatian from Sibenik.After he retired, they moved back to Port Robinson where he worked at a local YMCA.In 1996 he was a coaching a big man’s camp for the Canadian National Team when scouts for the Toronto Raptors were impressed with him and invited him to training camp.Although he didn’t make the last series of cuts, he did sign a six month contract with Split Croatia Insurance, which turned out to be his last professional team.Competing in the Euroleague, Smrek played in 5 of the final 6 games of the preliminary round, where he averaged 16.2 minutes 4.6 points and 4.0 rebounds per game.
These numbers, much like the rest of his professional career, were not overwhelming. But despite nagging injuries and a lack of certain skills, Smrek was one of the more successful Canadian basketball players, playing seven years in the NBA and becoming the first Canadian to own an NBA championship ring.
