Career
He is best known for his lengthy human interest stories in Sports Illustrated, where he worked from 1983 to 2013. Smith worked as a sportswriter for the Wilmington News Journal, the Philadelphia Daily News, the New York Daily News, and Inside Sports before joining Sports Illustrated. His writing has also appeared in Time, Rolling Stone, and Esquire.
Foreign many years, Smith"s role as senior writer at Sports Illustrated has been to write four lengthy feature articles per year, most of which are in-depth personality profiles.
He wants to understand what is the core conflict that has driven that person. He hopes to tell a secret that a person might not be aware of." Several of Smith"s subjects have attested to his profound insight.
His stories have appeared in The Best American Sports Writing series a record 12 times. Some of his literary peers have called him "the best magazine writer in America" and "America"s best sportswriter".
He also has been cited as a role model by younger sportswriters.