Harry Smith is free. And I am so glad.
It had been a while since I met him. Back then, September 2017, he was an inmate at San Quentin State Prison. The Warriors’ front-office staff visited and I wrote about the game they played against the prisoners. Smith, who they called “ATL” because of his Atlanta roots and “The Phenom” because of his hoop skills, proved to be a handful for Warriors general manager Bob Myers and company.
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The next time I saw him, we were on a panel together at The Castro Theater. He was a star.
Smith is a central figure in an excellent new film that debuted as part of the San Francisco International Film Festival. Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures is one of the executive producers of the film. Rich Kleiman, Durant’s partner, attended the private screening and Durant snuck in to watch.
“Q Ball” is a riveting, emotionally charged documentary about the San Quentin Warriors, the basketball team in the prison that annually caps its season against Warriors staffers. It is chilling, inspiring, heartbreaking, thought-provoking, raw. One moment, you’re rooting for a prisoner, who is either funny or comes off as so kind and thoughtful. Then you learn what they actually did to get in there and it is such a paradigm shift. Man, the range of emotions in this movie — which makes its TV premiere on FS1 on May 28 — is wild.
It was so much better than I expected. Some of that, assuredly, is because I had met several of the people in the film. It definitely helped drum up the intensity to have a connection. But Taylor Patterson, our director of communications at The Athletic, did not have a personal connection and she cried or laughed the whole movie. A couple times I looked over and she was bordering on an ugly cry.
And she wasn’t alone.
Kevin Durant’s Thirty Five Ventures backed the documentary film “Q Ball” after he visited the prison with the Warriors in 2016. (Miikka Skaffari/Getty Images)
Smith is among several who explain their stories of how they landed in jail, in explicit detail, and how life in San Quentin has changed them. Some of it is hard to listen to, the things they’ve done. Others offer extremely frustrating examples of how shady our country’s prison system is.
Side note: I was also very happy to see Jason Jones. He wasn’t in the film, but I saw him at the screening. I remember him because he was a really good point guard, a husky playmaker who knew how to use his bulk and was quicker than he looked. His time at San Quentin ended late last year, after 13 years in, and he is now a software engineer after learning the trade through The Last Mile program. I was surprised he remembered me. But they remember. They really do.
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The thread throughout the movie is the rehabilitation of Smith, who has since been released and is working to claim back his life and his remaining potential. He looks as if he is in even better shape, as he is now working with a trainer, and the zest of freedom has added some voltage to his smile, given him some glow.
He received a rousing ovation when he was called up for the panel — with the director Michael Tolajian, Rebekah Fergusson, one of the film’s producers, and myself. I was asked to participate because of the aforementioned article. In addition to attempting to become a professional basketball player somewhere in the world, Smith is working to accomplish true reconciliation with his family, and the journey is just gripping.
Durant’s only appearance in the film was via a photo the inmates kept from his 2016 visit. The only player during the visit featured in the movie was rookie Jacob Evans III. Myers, after hip surgery, missed the 2018 trip to San Quentin. He usually dominates the game. So without Myers, the Warriors’ lead supporting actor in the film was Chris DeMarco. The Warriors assistant coach is a legend in the famous prison as the best player among the Warriors’ staff. In one scene — minor spoiler alert — DeMarco was doing so much damage that “ATL” was assigned to guard him with the game on the line.
In 2017, when I went, the San Quentin Warriors won on a buzzer-beating layup, created by a turnover from Myers. Smith was in tears after the game. The countdown to his release had begun. The sense of accomplishment he and his team felt after beating the Warriors front office, it was so tangible and real. And now he’s out.
He gave me a hug and told me he kept my article because it meant so much to him. One of the proudest moments of my career.
So my daughter, who is in the sixth grade, has her first crush.
I know. I know. I’m trying my best not to freak out.
The boy she likes seems like a nice young man, even if there are some knucklehead tendencies as warning signs. But you know what really stands out about him, the part that has me a little in my feelings: the presumably 11-year-old boy has a sneaker game better than mine. I haven’t yet seen him wear the same pair twice.
I am not sure what it means or how I should receive this information.
The Raiders have seven 10 a.m. games on the upcoming schedule. Count them. Seven.
At Minnesota. At Indianapolis. At London (against the Bears). At Green Bay. At Houston. At New York (Jets). At Kansas City. The Raiders haven’t had more than five 10 a.m. starts in a season since the six they had in 2015.
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Our Raiders expert Vic Tafur called the Raiders’ 2019 schedule the worst ever and said it was proof the league hates the Raiders. It is that brutal. They go nearly two months without playing in Oakland. And on top of that, nearly half the schedule will be played early, always an impediment for West Coast teams.
By the way, the Raiders have lost their last six games that kicked off at 10 a.m.
The streak started at Buffalo in October 2017 and was followed by losses at Kansas City (also in 2017), at Miami, against Seattle (in London), at Baltimore and at Cincinnati. During those seven games, they were outscored 177-85.
Oddly enough, before this current skid, the Raiders were lights out for 10 a.m. games. They improbably won six straight, including all five of such games in 2016, the year Derek Carr was an MVP-caliber quarterback.
Here is a great reason to make it to Maples Pavilion next season. Her name is Fran Belibi.
She is a YouTube sensation because of her dunking. You haven’t seen a woman basketball player banging like Belibi. She is catching alley-oops, dunking off drop steps, jumping over people in dunk contests.
By the way, she is listed as 6-foot-1. So she is the same height as Quinn Cook.
Belibi chose Stanford because of its combination of athletic and academic prowess. She seems like an awfully impressive person. Get to know her now so you can say you were already up on her if and when she becomes an NCAA phenom. Hint: you might want to watch her now because she plans on attending medical school instead of playing pro hoop, following the footsteps of her parents who are doctors.
(Photo of Harry Smith courtesy of Fox Sports)