Hapoel Jerusalem opens the Israel Basketball season on Friday afternoon when they visit the reining champions Hapoel Holon as they look to begin their domestic campaign off to a good start under new head coach Aleksandar Dzikic.

The Serbian bench boss has put together an interesting cast of characters that will put it all on the line for the Reds game in and game out while never giving up on any play no matter what.

The catalyst for the capital city squad will undoubtedly be their point guard and floor general, Speedy Smith. The 29-year old Florida native attended Louisiana Tech University and has spent time both in the G-League and around Europe having made stops in Latvia, Hungary, Belgium, France and Lithuania. During the COVID season of 2019/20, Smith arrived in Israel and signed with Maccabi Haifa for the balance of the campaign as he got his first taste of the Holy Land where he left a good impression with the fans thrusting for more Speedy.

Just as the ball is about to be put in play in the first game of the new season, The Sports Rabbi sat down with Smith to discuss a myriad of topics from his time in college and Europe, to his dreams and desires while of course we talk about why he returned to Israel and decided to join Hapoel Jerusalem.

“Joining Hapoel Jerusalem was the luck of the draw. I was blessed with the opportunity to come back to Israel that has a great atmosphere, more responsibility, more judgement which is good. I feel that I have developed myself to have this type of challenge. Jerusalem is a very historic organization. I like the way they work and the last time I was here I remember they were really good during the COVID year. They were at the top of the league and playing really good. I know they had as they said ‘losing years’ but being able to put the team back where they are supposed to be I like that challenge and responsibility.”

Smith arrived in June of 2020 just in time for the restart of the season that was paused in March of that year due to the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic. During the time he was in Israel, the guard who averaged 14.6 points, 7.6 assists and 3.9 rebounds in 8 games found a league that was to his liking and fit his style of play.

“The league is fast paced and I like how it operates and to me it’s like an NBA style of play. I really respect the league. It’s a very aggressive and strong game. One of my favorite parts of Israel is the weather. I’m tired of playing cold weather so to get some sunshine, I’m definitely into that.”

Hapoel Jerusalem put together an almost entirely new squad including a brand new coach in Aleksandar Dzikic as well who has put a big emphasis on the tactical side of the game as well as making sure that he is a players coach and one that can understand the needs of his squad.

“I believe that we have the best coach in the league with his tactics and I really feel he’s going to make us better. He’s a players coach which makes us better right away to have a coach that can relate to us. We have Khadeen Carrington who is going to be the best scorer in the league and Levi Randolph who will be right up there with him, they’ll be neck and neck all year. Two great post players with Zach Hankins and Itay Segev, really great shooters in Oz Blayzer and Siim Sander-Vene, so I really feel that we will be a dominant team. It’s juts putting the pieces together. We are so unselfish and no one is jealous of one another and we all want to see us win. I like the vibe of the team.”

“As for coach Dzikic, we both had been at Rytas at different times, him being an NBA coach I feel like as every American your drive and motivation is to get to that spot, so I feel that I can pick his brain and vice versa. He is the first coach that told me that I can get better. At my age, I feel that I still want to get better so if someone tells me that they can help me after coming off of a very dominant year, that there put him at the top of the coaches that I wanted to play for. I said, if you can make me better, then the sky is the limit.”

As for off the court highlights, Smith is liking what he sees and how relationships have been developing, “We spent a lot of time together and we aren’t afraid to challenge one another. Levi challenges me about taking shots, I get on Segev about dunking the ball. We talk about what needs to be done off of the court.”

Speedy, whose given name is Kenneth got his nickname because his mother delivered him in the hallway of a hospital and it was so to speak a “speedy delivery” as she never made it to the labor room.

As Smith was growing up basketball wasn’t his first shirt as football, “America’s Game” was right at the top of his sports preferences and to this day he still follows the NFL and his favorite teams, “To be honest, basketball isn’t even my sport. I was a football player, a quarterback and basketball as a hobby. Football as something that I was intrigued with and had a lot of favorite players in Shaun King and Michael Vick. My only favorite player I looked up to in basketball was Allen Iverson. I went to a basketball practice with a friend and the sport just got me. I always had playground talent and in high school I made the decision to go with basketball.”

“Football is easier were they can pick so many guys and basketball is only 12 so that drove me to the challenge to make the cut. A ton of people still ask me to this day why I chose basketball over football die to the impact I had at football because I was really good. Some of my peers are in the NFL. We all took our different paths but my favorite NFL team is America’s Team, the Dallas Cowboys. But with me living in Florida the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are also up there.”

For college, Smith originally wasn’t supposed to even head to Louisiana Tech but a fate would have it he ended up at the Ruston, Louisiana based school where he excelled on the court, “Crazy story. I was a week or two from going to a Division II team in Boca Raton, but Coach saw me off a highlight tape that I had put on line and came to me and I went right then and there. It was a surreal moment. I really developed my name there and it gave me more of a universal name.”

In college, Smith was teammates with Michale Kyser who played for Hapoel Holon last season as well as Alex Hamilton who played for Rishon in the past, “I talk to those guys all the time and I was trying to get Michale to come here but he told because he had played for Holon he couldn’t do it because of the rivalry and wouldn’t get through it. Alex just got back from hip surgery and he is back being himself, dunking on people. We were really good. Our best player is back home and no one would really even know him, Raheem Appleby, He was talented out of this world.”

While Louisiana Tech aways threatened to punch their ticket to college basketball’s “Big Dance” for one reason or another Smith explained they just weren’t able to get over teh hump to find their way into the NCAA Tournament.

“Unfortunate circumstances. My freshman year we lost in the championship, just not experienced. My sophomore year we lost the first game and t was the other team’s night. My junior year we lost in the championship, the schedule was messed up and the other team had more rest than us and in my senior year we go and play on the road at UAB, nothing was ever on our side. The tourney should have been at a neutral site but it’s all about money and making but where they can. We just never got the advantage.”

You were named 2015 player of the year which is impressive while also winning a bunch of awards in college.
In his final year in college, Smith won the 2015 Conference USA Player of the Year Award which as he says was the cherry on top of his undergraduate career, “I should have won it the year before when I was averaging a double-double. Overall it was the icing on the cake by not only winning it my senior year but my coach won the coach of the year award, so winning it was exciting to do so together and not just alone. I wish I could have put all of my teammates names on that award because we went hard veery practice together but I just wanted they would put my jersey in the rafters because I have so many records, but not getting to the tournament dimmed that light. Winning that award really talks on the career that I had.”

Jerusalem forward Mareks Mejeris was also Smith’s teammate back in his first season abroad in 2015/16 at Riga, “I was a kid and didn’t even know about overseas basketball. I get to Riga, Latvia where it’s dark most of the day from Florida. You can say in a lot of ways that I wasn’t ready, the organization didn’t trust me, you can say not of things, I was happy to get away from there and we talk about that all of the time., It’s full circle, now that e are back together ten years later. I am such a different player now but he is such a smart player. I knew that I could trust him. I wasn’t on his level at that point.”

Smith also played in France at Limoges with Romeo Travis who not only played in Israel but is known to be one of LeBron James’s best friends and while ‘Bron didn’t pay him a visit he still left quite the impression on the entire team, “LeBron didn’t come visit but I can tell you one thing is that he had so many boxes of LeBron Nikes. I would have never made it through Limoges without Romeo or Marcus Ginyard, those were some of the darkest times of my career right there. That COVID year was very stressful or me.”

During his time in the G-League with the Los Angeles D-Fenders and the Grand Rapids Drive, Smith played with a variety of players, “I played with Marcus Thorton who was an NBA veteran, Landy Nnoko who is a dominant post man, Jamel Morris who was a great scorer and Keenan Evans too. You just need more IQ to play in Israel and that is what wins games. Talent and athleticism, but at the end of the game it’s the IQ, that’s what it’s all about.”

As for the NBA, Smith says that it is not only a dream but also why he came to Israel, “That’s why I came to play for this coach. I feel that I am definitely a point guard that can play there but it’s politics. You see a lot of these guys aren’t better than me and doesn’t do anything different than I do but his agent may be best friends with an owner etc… I am preparing myself as it’s only .1% that do. If I can get there it would be life for me. Some guys have had that experience and I am developing myself to get that experience to where it’s a no-brainer. I don’t want to go there and get cut. I want to go there and have an actual opportunity and I am playing for the coach that can give me that best opportunity.”

With a big season coming up with Jerusalem, Smith laid out his personal goals and that of the team, “I just want to be the best that I can be every night, of course I have bigger goals than that and a lot within myself. I want to make this team as bright as I can make them and lead theses guys I feel that is the goal. We want to win the midseason cup, we sat to win the Champions League and the Israeli league and I feel that we have the team to do that because of the weapons we have. When those bog games come up, be prepared, be ready and put the team in position to win. I know what it feels like to be a champion, Levi Randolph knows what that feels like and I want that taste again. This is one of the biggest ones you can win overseas.”

As for strengths and style of play, Smith explained that coach Dzikic has given him pretty much carte blanche and has given him the keys to the car so to speak, “I am very good passer and read the defense really well. I have to work on shooting it more in the game. I can be different in any game, but I want to be big every night and we can’t afford any low nights.”

“Coach gave me the open court rule when I talked to him before I came here. If I want to shoot 15 a night I have the freedom to do so just like if I want to shoot it 3 times a night. Each game will ask offensively for something different from me. I have to make sure that my scorers are being scorers, my shooters are getting shots, because I have the ball in my hand 90% of the game so I can dictate what I want to do each night. It’s just being able to be versatile with the game.”

Smith has spoken about being the leader of this team as soon as he arrived and that has been crystal clear throughout the preseason, “Just being a person that shows it, showing how I am going through the game. I can talk as much as I want but I have to show it. I am the next voice after coach so I have to repeat what he says and the point guard to coach connection is high volume, talking aggressive as we are all looking at the bigger picture. The best thing about me is that I am very chill.”