Smitten by game
Valpo’s Derrik Smits loves basketball like his father, ex-NBA star Rik
It used to be a “once-in-a-long-time kind of thing,” Derrik Smits said, that he could beat his dad on the basketball court.
Now 52 and 2 inches taller than his 7-foot-2 son, former NBA All-Star Rik Smits understands how time can turn the tables.
“Now it seems like when we play, he beats me pretty easily,” said Rik, the former Pacers center who played with Reggie Miller and battled Michael Jordan and the Bulls during their 1990s heydays. “(Derrik) uses his quickness. Then he lets up and gives me a chance. I wish he wouldn’t. He needs to just kick my butt now every time we play.”
Derrik, a junior center from Zionsville, Ind., is trying to do more of that for Valparaiso, which entered the weekend tied with Loyola atop the Missouri Valley Conference. He is the Crusaders’ No. 2 scorer with 11.9 points per game and leads them in rebounds (6.2) and blocked shots (1.3), and he ranks second in the conference in field-goal percentage (62.1).
Derrik’s improvement from his sophomore season, in which he averaged 7.5 points and 3.6 re
On the court, Derrik has some resemblance to his father, “the Dunking Dutchman,” who was the second pick in the 1988 NBA draft out of Marist. Derrik has a nice shooting touch like his dad and the same smirk and blond hair — minus the style.
“I do not have the mullet,” said Derrik, who keeps his hair closely cropped. “Some people tell me to bring it back. I resist that one.”
Some kids of celebrities find the focus on their famous parent uncomfortable and try to shy away from it. Derrik said he always embraced being the child of a beloved former Pacer.
“Being compared to him motivated me when I was in high school,” said Derrik, who was 3 when his dad retired because of chronic foot injuries. “It motivates me now, especially growing up in the Indianapolis area. There was a lot of that and a lot of negative comparing me to him.
“Regardless, I embraced it. I never let it get to me, so he didn’t have to worry about it.”
Rik coached his son officially only as an assistant on his high
Derrik also took up another of his dad’s passions: dirt-bike racing. He was on four-wheelers and bikes from around age 3. It was a hobby Rik enjoyed while growing up in the Netherlands but had to abandon during his NBA days.
Both laughed at the memory of a 13-mile race that lasted about 2½ hours in which Rik’s goal was to pass Derrik. He did, only to see
“It was father-son bonding,” Derrik said.
A 7-inch growth spurt during the summer break before high school prompted Derrik to focus on basketball. As a senior at Zionsville, he averaged 14.9 points, 5.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocks and earned scholarship offers from Butler, Clemson and Xavier.
He overcame an ankle injury as
“I was always laughed at and picked on as a young kid just for being tall,” Rik said. “Over there (in the Netherlands), basketball was not a well-known sport. Once I got (to America), I got a great deal of confidence. People said, ‘Oh, I wish I was that tall.’ I never heard people say that.
“Basketball was good for me. But it always lingered in the back of my head.”
He doubted he would be a high draft pick. He didn’t imagine having a long, successful NBA career — even when he was battling the Bulls in classic games, including the 1998 Eastern Conference finals the Bulls won in seven games.
“One time early on I had a two-handed dunk, and Michael Jordan hit me right across the elbows — literally both elbows — and no foul was called,” recalled Rik, who averaged 16.3 points and 5.1 rebounds in that series. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is what we’re up against.’ The intensity was unbelievable. I loved it.”
Taking lessons he learned from his career, Rik said he tries to use “positive reinforcement” when critiquing Derrik’s game.
Rik accompanied Derrik to his home country over the summer as his son prepared to play for the Dutch national team, just as Rik did for two summers in college. They visited Rik’s family before the team left to play in Italy.
Back at his dad’s home in Arizona, where Rik moved about three years ago from Indiana, Derrik worked out tirelessly and added weight.
While Rik has been careful not to push Derrik to follow his life path, he hopes Derrik can also fulfill a dream.
“I had a great career and a great time,” he said. “If he can make his living in basketball, whether that’s in Europe or over here, I would love that for him. He says that’s what he wants to do.”
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