[Old General Record] Hero of Hometown! The Eagle King who has been flying for nine years!

For Josh Smith, he may be the player who best reflects the team's temperament in the history of the Hawks.

Decades ago, Dominic Wilkins, who was known as the "element of human films", appeared in the Hawks. Although he repeatedly hit a wall in the playoffs and failed to reproduce the glory of the championship in the 1950s; the era when Wilkins galloped on the court was definitely the most proud time for Hawks fans.

In 2004, when Josh Smith, a young Atlanta player who was born and raised, all Hawks fans were looking forward to it. But nine years later, when Smith flew away, he left behind a complex emotion that made the fans feel mixed.

Looking back at the first half of Josh Smith's life, he spent almost all of his time in Atlanta. He transferred to Oakhill College in the last year of high school, but abandoned school the next year and joined the NBA draft. He was then selected by his hometown team Atlanta Hawks and put on the home team's jersey again.

For Smith, he carries not only the expectations of his hometown elders, but also the unfinished dream of his father. Josh Smith's father was Pete Smith. He grew up in Atlanta and worked in cotton fields with 13 siblings since childhood. At that time, the black people's rights awareness had not yet been fully awakened. They had a relatively low social status and lived a difficult life, and a lot of discrimination often made them feel helpless.

But Pete found that on the sports field, they could control their own destiny. He was athletic and tall since childhood. Later, he became the first black player in Valdosta State University's history and was selected by the predecessor of the Clippers' Buffalo Warriors in the 1971 draft. However, after leaving five games in the ABA league, it was abandoned by the team. Although they had participated in the pre-season training camp of the Hawks, they were unable to squeeze into the season list as they wished and finally faded out of the field early.

After leaving basketball, Pete became a truck driver. While raising Josh Smith, he worked as his son's basketball coach. Josh Smith went to school every day in his father's old shoes, and his father accompanied him to practice and grow up, witnessing him becoming a local basketball star, and finally appeared on the stage of his father's dream back then.

Rookie season, Josh Smith averaged 27.7 minutes of playing time. At that time, for a high school skipper, this was already quite a lot of playing time. In the All-Star Dunk Contest, he wore the jersey of his senior Wilkins to pay tribute to the classic moment 20 years ago, becoming the second youngest slam dunk contest champion at that time after Kobe. In the past few years, the Eagles' record has also flourished. After a bleak 13 wins in the first year of joining the team, after the Hawks welcomed Joe Johnson the next year, they selected Marvin Williams, Horford and Teague one after another. The team started the five-Tiger combination gradually took shape, and then Smith's last six seasons with the Hawks, all the teams advanced to the playoffs.

is just a beautiful appearance, not all of them are beautiful. Over the years, there have been many clashes between Josh Smith and his teammates, especially with head coach Mike Woodson. In the 2009 season, 62 games had already been held, and there was another quarrel between Woodson and Smith, and before that, the farce had been staged intermittently for five years. This time, internal conflicts broke out at a critical juncture less than two months before the playoffs, which was quite awkward. At this time, the coaches of each team in the league began to determine the playoff rotation, but in the Hawks, they could actually see the head coach pressing the most important core player of the team on the bench during the game.

In the 2010-11 season, the Hawks chose to fire Woodson and straighten the assistant coach Larry Drew; even if the coach changed, the conflict between Josh Smith and the coach did not disappear. To borrow a reporter's report at the time:

"All season, Smith has been causing harm to the team and damaging his relationship with other players, and coach Drew has no solution to this." In the summer of 2008, the Grizzlies had a offer to grab Josh Smith, who was restricted free agent, but the Hawks quickly followed up with the contract to retain people. After years of turmoil, the Eagle was finally willing to admit that this former hometown hero seemed to be more and more like a terrifying character, and in the end the management finally decided to let him go.

In 2013, Josh Smith switched to the Pistons as a free agent. According to him at the time, there was no progress in the negotiations on renewal of the contract that summer, and he did not even communicate with any team managers.

Looking back at Josh Smith's career, although the Hawks have always had a good record and have been a regular in the playoffs for several years on the team, his brilliance has been completely overshadowed by Joe Johnson, who joined the team a year later. Josh Smith, who was originally carrying the expectations of a hero from his hometown, now looks back. If you want to answer who was the Eagle King in those years, few fans would regard him as the team's ace.

Even though he relies on athleticism, Josh Smith has performed well from time to time on the offensive end, but at the critical moment, he cannot give the team stability like Joe alone. He seems to be able to make sudden arrows on the outside, but his career three-point shooting percentage is only 28.5%, and he handed in high-quality defensive data every year, but he has never been able to become a stable franchise protector.

was originally expected to be the next all-round star after James, but in the end it became a nightmare for fans: they understand everything a little, but they are not proficient.

In addition to poor offensive efficiency, Josh Smith's choice of attack has always been criticized. As early as high school, his coach had comments:

"He has the bad habit of poor shooting choices and too many three-point shootings. He is tall and has outstanding physical conditions. He can easily attack the basket. I don't want his shooting to be too casual.. ”

After leaving the Hawks, Josh Smith put on the Pistons jersey. In an ordinary game, in the final countdown, facing the team's two points behind, he did not choose to play conservatively, but faced the defense and made a difficult three-pointer. After the action, the teammates of the game shook their heads and staggered. When the basketball bounced out, the live broadcaster on the sidelines even cursed without any concealment.

Of course, Josh Smith himself knew these problems. He also tried to reform himself, persuaded and communicated with his father. Later, Smith, who had made multiple three-pointers per game in the previous few seasons, made only 7 three-pointers in 81 games in 2009-10. He unexpectedly gave his only shooting percentage of 50% in his career and the second highest true shooting percentage in his career. But the good times didn't last long, and he quickly returned to the same level the following season. The issue of

's shooting selection not only caused his personal efficiency to decline, but also affected his relationship with his teammates and coaches, even Larry Drew, who later succeeded as head coach He tried every possible way to help him adjust, but it still had no effect, which led to Smith's departure.

After leaving the Hawks, Josh Smith's career performance was getting worse and worse. Apart from the 2015 playoffs, he had almost no other outstanding performance.

He has been in the league for 13 seasons throughout his career, and in the past nine years with the Hawks, his name ranks in the top ten in many statistics in the history of the Hawks. He has never been selected as an All-Star in his career, and the only two can win The achievements on the stage are probably only selected as the second team of the Rookie in the 2004-05 season and the second team of the 2009-10 season.

Compared with the expectations when graduating from high school that year, looking back at this former hometown hero who flew to the sky and the earth, from the perspective of the Atlanta village elders, maybe I feel more regretful.

Josh Smith found his way back home, but in the end he was unable to find the way to success. It was also a pity in the dark.