Athletes - Stevin Smith

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	Athletes - Stevin Smith

Stevin L. Smith (born January 24, 1972 in Dallas, Texas) is a professional basketball player.

Smith was an All-PAC-10 Conference point guard for Arizona State University from 1991 through 1994, twice leading the Sun Devils to the NCAA Tournament. However, he is best known for being a central figure in one of the worst point shaving scandals to hit college basketball in the last 50 years.

During his senior season at Arizona State, Smith and a teammate took part in a conspiracy with fellow ASU student and bookmaker Benny Silman to fix four games during the 1993-94 season, after Smith had run up a large gambling debt with Silman and couldn't pay it back.

The point shaving didn't come to light for a few years after that season, and Smith began to pursue a career in professional basketball. Failing to make an NBA team in the fall of 1994, Smith took his game overseas, playing for the Spanish team Somontano Huesca during the 1994-95 season. Over the next four years, Smith played for teams in Turkey, France and in the Continental Basketball Association.

During the 1997 NBA season, Smith received a 10-day contract from the Dallas Mavericks, and received his only NBA playing time to date. He played 60 minutes over eight games, scoring 14 points for a 1.8 per-game average.

Late that year, the first rumors of the ASU point shaving scandal came to light. Smith later worked out a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, giving testimony against Silman in exchange for a one-year prison term. Smith was incarcerated from December of 1999 until October of 2000. Shortly before entering prison, Smith told his story in Sports Illustrated magazine and also in speeches to other college basketball players, encouraging them not to repeat his mistakes.

After his release, Smith returned to Europe and his professional basketball career, playing for three different teams based in France from 2001-03, in the Israeli League in 2004 and for Dynamo Moscow in Russia the last two seasons.

He received his unique nickname (pronounced the same as "headache") during his career at ASU, when an opposing coach described preparing for Smith as a headache. Smith himself changed the spelling to "Hedake" so it would fit on a vanity plate for his car.

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