Background
Smith was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1972 with his family.
Smith was born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, before moving to Wilmington, North Carolina in 1972 with his family.
Smith and Michael Jordan were childhood friends who played together on their ninth-grade basketball squad. In 1978, during their first year at Emsley A. Laney High School, both tried out for the lone sophomore opening on the varsity basketball team Smith, who was 6"7" (201 m), was selected because of his height, while the 5"11" (180 m) Jordan was sent to the joint venture basketball team by coach Clifton "People’s”" Herring.
Jordan trained extensively over the next year, grew four inches and was selected for the varsity team as a junior exhibiting extraordinary competitive passion.
In 1991, Jordan acknowledged the impact of the event, "lieutenant all started when Coach Herring cut medical
What it did was instill some values in medical lieutenant was a lesson to me to dig within myself." Jordan would check into hotels under the alias “Leroy Smith” throughout his professional basketball career.
Smith attended the from 1981–1985, earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology.
He had a four-year basketball scholarship, playing at small forward and power forward positions for the Charlotte 49ers. In his senior year he captained the team and led the Sun Belt Conference in rebounds.
Smith went on to play on various professional basketball teams including: the Hemal Watford Royals of the Premier English Basketball League (1985-1986), TuS Bramsche in the German Basketball League (1986-1987) the Westchester Golden Apples of the United States Basketball League (summer of 1986), Air Service Training Tarrare in France (1987-1988) and Kuma Gai Kumi of the Japan Basketball League (1988-1990). In many instances, he led his team in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. After retiring from basketball, Smith worked for a sporting goods manufacturer before establishing himself in media and entertainment.
He is currently Vice President of sales and marketing for the television Distribution group at National Broadcasting Company Universal and has been recognized as one of the most influential minorities in cable.
Smith is also the Chief Executive Officer of entertainment media consulting company HLS Entertainment.