Keith Smart back with Heat after treating cancer
MIAMI — Assistant coach Keith Smart is back with the Miami Heat after completing cancer treatment and is expected to resume many of his normal duties during the playoffs.
Smart, 51, worked with the team for the second consecutive day Saturday as the Heat prepared for Game 1 on Sunday of their opening-round matchup against the Charlotte Hornets. Before returning to Miami on Thursday from his home in California, Smart had missed most of the season after twice leaving the team to treat a rare form of skin cancer that had spread along the left side of his face.
After undergoing surgery in December and 30 rounds of chemotherapy, Smart is glad to be back.
“They beat me up pretty bad,” Smart said Saturday of the cancer treatments. “I still have some of the recovery scars, but overall, the plan was to get Keith Smart’s life healthy again. Wherever that fell at some point — it just so happened that I finished up my treatments and went through a couple of rehabilitations — I got healthy enough to fly back here.”
Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said Smart will have a vital role in the team’s playoff preparation, but wasn’t certain if Smart will coach from the bench during the games. Smart said he continues to work on his conditioning and stamina in hopes of working with players on the court during practice sessions.
Smart joined Spoelstra’s staff last season after previous head coaching stints in Cleveland, Golden State and Sacramento. With the Heat, Smart has been primarily responsible for charting the team’s offense and providing individual scouting reports on areas which players need to improve. Even during his time away from the team for treatment, Smart provided reports to Spoelstra after watching film and satellite feeds of the Heat’s games.
“He’s here for good right now,” Spoelstra said Saturday of Smart. “He’s going to be involved. Whether or not he’s on the bench, he’s going to be involved every meeting.”
It’s been a long and challenging road back for Smart, who discovered the cancer in November, just four games into the Heat’s regular season. He first left the team a month later for surgery and returned in late January before leaving again to undergo more rounds of aggressive chemotherapy. Heat players, coaches and staff members kept in contact with Smart through calls and text messages.
The most difficult moment came midway through the schedule of chemo treatments, when Smart said he grew too weak to file the game reports.
“My focus has always been on what we’re doing and the details,” Smart said. “I would present that to Coach. I told him at one point between treatments 15 and 18, that’s when it really hit me and I couldn’t concentrate — I was so tired. I told him, ‘Well, the reports are going to now start dropping, because I can’t keep up with them.’ And he said, ‘Well, why are you still doing those things anyway?’ But I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to be close to it, and I was able to do a little bit of that.”
After surgery in December, Smart said doctors told him there was a one in 50 chance of a recurrence of the skin cancer if he didn’t follow up with chemotherapy. But the chances of a recurrence were one in 500 if he went through the full radiation and treatment process. Prioritizing his health meant having to sacrifice almost an entire season with the Heat. The decision was easy, although the recovery was not. Smart said he lost 27 pounds throughout the process and still struggles to eat anything other than “momma’s old remedy” of grits and eggs.
“Every day I went into my treatment, what these guys were (communicating) was, ‘You’re going to get back at the right time of the year,'” Smart said. “I was getting texts from the players, coaches and even the support staff downstairs. When I got back here, it was open arms. I didn’t have to feel like I’m letting guys down by not being here. Their whole focus was, ‘Take care of yourself and then get back to us.'”
Smart still had a significant impact during his time away. Among the players with whom he remained in constant contact was Heat rookie guard Josh Richardson, who early in the season was assigned to Miami’s D-League affiliate but improved drastically to become the NBA’s rookie of the month for March.
One of the reports Smart sent to Richardson read: “Be confident on offense, because teams aren’t guarding you like they should,” Richardson said.
“It’s just big from a coaching standpoint and a [morale] boost,” Richardson said after Saturday’s practice. “We were all crushed when we found out (Smart) had that situation. But having him back is big for us.”
Smart’s cancer battle came during a season in which the Heat also coped with the loss of perennial All-Star forward Chris Bosh, who has been sidelined since February with a medical condition. Bosh, who also missed the second half of last season to treat blood clots that traveled to his lungs, addressed the team at Friday’s practice about not taking the postseason opportunity for granted.
On Saturday, it was Smart’s presence that provided an inspirational boost.
“I can’t do all of what I was doing before, but I can still give the mental aspect of what I know we’re going to see, what I know is going to be expected from them, what I know Coach wants them to do,” Smart said. “I was in (Friday’s) practice, just standing up on my feet. It felt like training camp. It was a tough day for me, first time around it. But today, getting back into it, getting into the meeting and game preparation stuff, all was brand new. It’s like I’m a new coach again.”
