Hall of Famer Katie Smith, NY Liberty
WNBA legend Katie Smith is set to be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame on Friday. We celebrate her incredible WNBA career with 10 key numbers to remember.
Smith is a two-time champion in two separate women’s professional basketball leagues. She began her career in the ABL and won the league’s only two titles in 1997 and 1998 as a member of the Columbus Quest. She then joined the WNBA, where she won two championships with the Detroit Shock in 2006 and 2008, earning Finals MVP honors with the latter title run.
In addition to her success in the ABL and WNBA, Smith was also a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist for USA Basketball, winning gold at the 2000 Games in Sydney, the 2004 Games in Athens and the 2008 Games in Beijing. She also won a pair of World Cup gold medals in 1998 and 2002 as well as a bronze in 2006.
She earned four straight All-WNBA Team selections with a pair of First Team honors in 2001 and 2003 and a pair of Second Team honors in 2000 and 2002 – all as a member of the Minnesota Lynx.
Smith played for five WNBA teams during her 15-year career. She spent the first six-and-a-half seasons in Minnesota (1999-2005) before being traded to Detroit, where she would win her two WNBA titles. After a four-and-a-half year run in Detroit, Smith signed with the Washington Mystics in 2010, joined the Seattle Storm for two seasons in 2011 and 2012 where she was teammates with fellow Hall of Fame Class of 2018 member Tina Thompson, before closing out her career with the New York Liberty (2013). In New York, she reunited with former Shock coach Bill Laimbeer and joined his coaching staff as an assistant following her retirement. When Laimbeer left New York for Las Vegas this season, Smith was hired as the Liberty’s head coach.
Smith is a seven-time WNBA All-Star (2000–2003, 2005, 2006, 2009) and the first player to win All-Star Games with both conferences. She was a Western Conference All-Star from 2000-2003 and in 2005, as the West dominated the East, before helping the East earn their first All-Star win in 2006 during her first full season in Detroit.
10/15/20 – Similar to her Hall of Fame Classmate Thompson, Smith is a member of the WNBA All-Decade Team (2006), Top 15 Players of All-Time (2011) and Top 20@20 (2016) as they honored the best players in league history after 10, 15 and 20 years, respectively.
23.1 – Smith averaged a career-best 23.1 points per game during the 2001 season – her third in the WNBA. She not only won the league scoring title, but posted the sixth-highest single season scoring average in league history.
59.77 – She ranks seventh in WNBA history in win shares behind four future Hall of Famers – Diana Taurasi, Tamika Catchings, Lauren Jackson and Lindsay Whalen – as well as two current Hall of Famers Tina Thompson and Lisa Leslie.
906 – Smith drained 906 3-pointers during her WNBA career, the second-most of all-time behind Taurasi, who surpassed Smith in 2017. Smith shot 906-for-2466 (36.7%) from beyond the arc during her career. She is tied with Sue Bird for eighth in 3-pointers made during the playoffs (78), and is tied with Maya Moore for second in 3-pointers made in the Finals (36).
7,885 – Smith finished her professional basketball career with 7,885 career points when combined her points from the ABL (1,433) and WNBA (6,452, 5th all-time). Smith’s 7,885 career points trails only Taurasi (8,549) for the most ever by an American female basketball player.
