September 4, 2023
Locked on Women’s Basketball: Katie Smith on what she learned from Cheryl Reeve, Bill Laimbeer and Detroit Shock
By The Next
Legendary WNBA guard Katie Smith talks past and present with host Howard Megdal
On today’s episode of Locked on Women’s Basketball — lessons out of the past, Detroit Shock memories and so much more, as Minnesota Lynx associate head coach Katie Smith joins the podcast with host Howard Megdal.
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Prior to her coaching career, Katie Smith had a legendary playing career. She won two American Basketball League (ABL) titles with the Columbus Quest (1997, 1998) and two WNBA titles with the Detroit Shock (2006, 2008). She’s a three-time Olympic gold medalist (2000, 2004, 2008), seven-time WNBA All-Star and a Naismith Hall of Famer.
Originally drafted to the Minnesota Lynx in 1999, Smith was traded to the Detroit Shock in 2005. She joined a stacked Shock team coached by Bill Laimbeer, who won two NBA championships with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons.
“[Detroit] got a bunch of scores in Deanna Nolan — “Tweety” — and Swin [Cash] there — they got a squad,” Smith said on the podcast. “And so I’m like, ‘where am I? where do I fit?’ So [Laimbeer said]…you’re still, you’re lead guard — you’re not a point guard, you’re lead guard, we’ll change the name — you know, whatever works. And he just had a vision and his vision was a lot like his Pistons team. The offenses, the defenses like — that’s kind of who we were. We ran the same sets.”
Smith joined Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve’s coaching staff in 2020 after spending six seasons with the New York Liberty, where she coached as an assistant to her former coach Laimbeer (2013-2017), eventually replacing him as head coach for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Her tenure as an assistant and now associate head coach for Cheryl Reeve has been a chance to take her life of basketball knowledge to another level, blending the lessons from her time as New York Liberty head coach, assistant to Bill Laimbeer and an all-time great playing career; her coaching has helped the surprising Minnesota Lynx reach playoff contention in the 2023 season.
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Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.
