Title or bust for Jumbotron

TNT import Joshua Smith is confirmed to play for the KaTropa in Game 4 of the PBA Commissioner’s Cup Finals against San Miguel Beer at the Smart Araneta Coliseum tonight and neither his girlfriend Kristy’s birth to their first child tomorrow nor a torn ligament in his right foot will keep the man called “Jumbotron” away from the court.

TNT had the option to replace Smith with import-in-waiting Mike Myers but the deadline to switch lapsed at noon yesterday with no notice of a change. So TNT will try to even up the best-of-seven series in Game 4 with Smith in harness.  

TNT alternate governor and former PBA chairman Patrick Gregorio said Smith never entertained the notion of backing out of the Finals. “Kristy is due to deliver tomorrow and it would’ve been easy for Joshua to opt out after suffering his foot injury in Game 3 of the Ginebra semifinal series,” said Gregorio. “But he phoned Kristy to ask her to understand that this championship means a lot to him, that he’s playing for the future of their first-born, a daughter. Joshua wants so badly to win this championship. We’re down, 1-2, but if we win Game 4, it’s back to square one.”

Gregorio said coach Nash Racela will make key adjustments on both ends of the floor in Game 4, primarily to take advantage of Smith’s presence.  He declined to divulge what Racela plans to do. But for sure, Smith will play a major role in Racela’s new battleplan.

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“Joshua is a gentle giant, a really nice guy,” said Gregorio. “He gets along with his teammates and he’s very accommodating to fans. My wife (Mariechele) cooks lumpia for him and he loves turron which he calls lumpiang banana. He also loves lumpiang shanghai. When I brought him two boxes of lumpiang banana and shanghai the other day, all he could say was yum yum. I think he’s 360 pounds now but I heard he was once up to 390.”

The boxes of lumpia came with this note from Gregorio – “Dear Joshua, lumpia banana and shanghai for you, home-cooked … beat San Miguel in Game 4!” Gregorio said the lumpias are Smith’s “vitamins.” At home in the US, Smith’s food favorites are gumbo and peach cobbler, his mother’s kitchen holiday specialties.

Smith, 25, is the third of four children of Joshua, Sr., who’s 6-2, and mother Tracey, who’s 5-4. He was born seven pounds, 11 ounces, in Seattle. Smith shot up to five feet tall when he was only five years old. As a high school freshman, he stood at 6-7. Smith was measured 6-9 1/2 by the PBA and wears size 19 shoes. His father was a shooting guard at McMurry University in Abilene, Texas. His older brother John was a University of Washington football player.

Out of high school, Smith was ranked the No. 1 center prospect by ESPN as a McDonald’s All-American and chose to enrol at UCLA whose legendary coach John Wooden was the subject of a termpaper he submitted in eighth grade. As a UCLA freshman in 2010-11, Smith averaged 10.9 points and shot 55.5 percent from the field in 33 games, including 15 starts. The next season, he averaged 9.9 points, 4.9 rebounds and 17.2 minutes in 32 games, including nine starts, and shot 57.4 percent from the floor. He scored in double figures in 16 games with a high of 24. In 2012-13, Smith left UCLA after averaging 5.2 points and 13.5 minutes in six games and transferred to Georgetown. He played in only 13 games for the Hoyas in 2013-14 and sat out 20 contests because of academic issues. Smith returned in the 2014-15 season to average 10.8 points and 5.8 boards for Georgetown as a senior.

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Smith has never played in the NBA but came close to crashing the Houston Rockets roster in 2015-16. He has suited up for the Rio Grande Valley Vipers in the NBA D-League the last two seasons. In the two previous NBA Summer Leagues in Las Vegas, Smith saw action for Miami and Milwaukee. According to Gregorio, Smith will head straight to McAllen, Texas, after the PBA conference to join his girlfriend and by then, their new-born daughter. McAllen is where the Vipers are based.

“Joshua was what we needed to beat Ginebra in the semifinals but against San Miguel, we need to do things differently because it’s not just (Charles) Rhodes but it’s also JuneMar (Fajardo),” said Gregorio. “Chris (Ross) has also played at an extremely high level. He used to be with Meralco and was never like the way he is now. Unless an injury strikes him out, Smith will be our import until the end of the Finals.”