One of the original Cavaliers doesn't miss a home game as he works on his recovery.
View full sizeBingo Smith gives an autograph to longtime fan John Marinin, of Garfield Heights, during a Cavs game Jan. 5 at The Q. Smith is still recovering from a life-threatening stroke suffered in April 2009. He attends all Cavs home games, visiting fans and former teammates in the VIP Lounge. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Bobby "Bingo" Smith was 1970s flashy. His looping rainbow jump shot was a fan favorite well before the NBA encouraged gunners with a three-point line.
He was also durable. In nine full seasons with the Cavs, he suited up for all 82 regular-season games four times and 81 games twice.
But as Smith, whose No. 7 is one of six retired jerseys hung at The Q, battles back from a stroke that nearly took his life on April 1, 2009, flashy and durable have been shoved aside by spartan and vulnerable.
Smith, who turns 65 in February, lives in a snug apartment in Bedford. His 22-year-old grandson, Bobby, moved in from Memphis to help take care of him, but Smith wears an emergency alert around his neck in case he falls and no one's around.
His right arm, which once sent basketballs spinning gracefully toward the hoop with a simple flick of the wrist, remains stiff and numb. He forgets names sometimes, and when he speaks, the left side of his mouth does all the work.
Through intense daily rehab, the feeling has slowly returned to the right side of his torso, and he's scrapped the wheelchair for a walker and a cane.
"I'm slower with the cane," he said, "but I'm free."
"A free spirit," is how former teammate Dick Snyder still describes him, and a free shooter. "When Bingo got the ball," he said, "he was going to find a way to get it up."
View full size"A free spirit," was Dick Snyder's description of Bingo Smith (playing against Phoenix). "When Bingo got the ball, he was going to find a way to get it up."The University of Tulsa star was chosen by the San Diego Rockets in the first round -- sixth overall -- in the 1969 NBA draft. After his rookie season, he wound up on Cleveland's new basketball team, one of 11 players coach Bill Fitch's Cavaliers plucked from other rosters in the 1970 expansion draft.
More than 40 years later, Smith still ranks among the top 10 in franchise history in nine categories. He's second all-time in games played and in field goals attempted and made, many of them captured in perpetuity of the mind by Joe Tait's hanging "Bing-ooooo!" calls on the radio.
He was branded with the nickname at Tulsa by a broadcaster to differentiate him from two other Bobby Smiths playing college basketball in Oklahoma at the time.
Early in the 1979-80 season, the Cavs shipped Smith back to San Diego, by then called the Clippers. It was his last season in the NBA, which had adopted a three-point line that year. Had the arc arrived sooner, it could have added hundreds of points to his career total.
The Cavs retired his jersey on Dec. 4, 1979, just over a month after they traded him. It hangs from the arena rafters between Nate Thurmond's No. 42 and the 1975-76 Central Division Championship banner, aka "The Miracle of Richfield" season in which Smith played such an important role.
"Bingy," said former teammate Footsie Walker, "he was an original Cavalier, that's the way to put it."
And a loyal one. Smith hasn't missed a Cavs' home game this season, fist-bumping ushers who remember him, sitting in the arena's VIP lounge with former Cavs and life-long friends Elmore Smith and Harry Davis and reconnecting with fans who still adore him.
"Hey, Bingo, we need you to suit up," fan Randy Snow of Canton called out to him before a recent loss to Toronto. "We could use your jumper."
Between bites of pulled pork and beans from the VIP buffet, Smith, snappy in a black-leather cap and black dress shirt under a vest, posed for pictures with fans and scratching out autographs as best he could left-handed because his right one isn't strong enough yet.
"Now that's an original," he said to Jacob Pena of Amherst after signing the young fan's game ticket. "No one could write that bad."
View full size"All three times, for some reason, God said, 'We still need you here,'" Bingo Smith (at his Bedford apartment) says of his repeated health crises. "I'm still here. He's still got some plans for me to do."Attending games is a hassle. Pam Thomas, a friend since the Cavs played in Richfield, drives him downtown and attends to his needs. Paul Rini, of the Q concierge staff who watched Smith sink one pressure shot after another in the "Miracle of Richfield" run, knows to greet him in the garage with a wheelchair so he doesn't have to fight the crowd.
But Smith loves the attention. Loves that he's remembered all these years later. Going to games gets him out of the house.
"I'm trying to do everything as normal as I can," he said.
Everything turned upside down on April Fool's Day of '09. Smith was relaxing on the couch at a former girlfriend's house. When he got up to answer a knock on the door, he collapsed face down on the living room floor and couldn't get up.
It was a stroke, caused, he said, by neglecting tooth decay that oozed into his bloodstream and the blood-pressure medication he's been on since the year after college. He was rushed to Huron Hospital, then later moved to a rehab center at Akron General.
Smith's heart had stopped for five minutes. He was in a coma for six weeks and had a blood clot in his head that had to be drained. When he awoke, he thought he'd been asleep for one night.
"It was really bad," said Russell, now the Cavs director of alumni relations. "It didn't look good."
It was the third time he almost died. Smith's left hand remains frozen claw-like from a stroke 10 years ago. A heart attack and resulting month-long coma during a routine physical 15 years ago left him with a pacemaker.
"All three times, for some reason, God said, 'We still need you here,'" he said. "I'm still here. He's still got some plans for me to do."
When he can, he speaks to kids about making good decisions. He also leaves memories of his playing days in a tape recorder for a friend who wants to help him write a book.
Russell said Smith embraced him as a rookie, even though he was drafted to replace him. Walker said he was a "big brother" to him and the other young players.
"All you have left is memories," Smith said. "That's something they can never take away."
Once healthy, he'd like to play golf again and help the Cavs in some capacity. Other stroke victims have told him it takes two to three years to rebound.
Smith, who is divorced, has five children, five grandkids and two great-grandchildren, many of whom were in town visiting during the year-end holidays. He said he's happy and having family around has been a blessing. He's taken them to Cavs games, pointing out his retired jersey and feeling as frustrated as the fans this season.
"It's little things each quarter. When they get a lead they can't hold it. It's like their concentration wanders, but they'll be all right," he said. "You don't have to win all the time, you just have to try. They will love you still."
Source: http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2011/01/free_and_easy_in_the_70s_cleve.html
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