Recently, the NBA was rocked by a touching story, only indirectly related to basketball: Dorian Finney-Smith, 30, who spent nearly seven seasons with Dallas, was reunited with his father after 29 years of separation. And it was the Mavericks who managed to make this match possible! We tell you how the team helped their student achieve the release of his father from prison.
Elbert Smith, 52, spent 28 years, nine months and eight days in various correctional facilities in Virginia. In the early ’90s, he received an honorable discharge from the US Navy, after which he went down the wrong path and was convicted of drug possession. But not even this was what led Smith to a long prison sentence, but the crime he committed on January 25, 1995.
That day, Smith and his friend, Diphen McGann, went to an auto repair shop in Virginia Beach to collect a debt owed by 31-year-old Willie Anderson. They both carried a gun. And when Anderson tried to wrestle the gun out of McGann’s hands, Smith scared him and forced him to retreat. When his “partner” regained control of the gun, he fired three fatal shots at the victim.
Both were eventually charged with first-degree murder. McGann pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on April 10, 1996, and accepted a five-year prison sentence. Smith was offered a similar deal, but the government’s lawyer advised him to refuse and go to court, arguing that it was McGann who fired the fatal shot.
However, on March 29, 1996, a jury found Smith guilty of second-degree murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm. He was sentenced to 44 years in prison.
Then his son, Dorian, was not even three years old. Thereafter, he communicated with his father by phone or through the glass fence during prison visits. Her single mother worked several jobs to support herself and her six children. And one of her sons, Ra-Shawn, at the age of 15, was shot dead in a school disco, and in front of Finney-Smith. And when he himself turned 16, Dorian became a father for the first time.
Dorian Finney-Smith
Photo: Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images
At such a young age, it certainly wasn’t easy for him. Coming out of high school, Finney-Smith was the 22nd recruit in his class. After playing one year at Virginia Tech and three more at Florida, he entered the NBA draft but was never selected. Then the young forward was thinking about leaving basketball, but it was his father who dissuaded him from abandoning this sport.
“People like me don’t make it to the NBA. People like me end up like my father. I should be in prison like him or dead like my brother. I shouldn’t be where I am right now.
But even while I was in prison, my father was always by my side. There was someone on the other end of the phone who would not judge me, but would simply listen to me. When I went undrafted, he was there,” Finney-Smith said.
However, in the summer of 2016 he was offered a contract in Dallas. The player played for the team in the summer league and, after impressing the coaching staff during preseason training, in the first match of the 2016/2017 season he earned a place in the starting five. Thus began Finney-Smith’s story with the Mavericks, where he spent six and a half years before heading to Brooklyn as part of the Kyrie Irving trade.
And although he is now a Nets player, the story of his father’s release began back in Dallas, three years ago. Finney-Smith then spoke to then-Mavericks assistant coach Jamal Moseley about his situation. He advised the player to contact Mark Cuban, who had already referred the question to Jason Lutin, his “right-hand man” and chief of staff in Dallas, who also has a legal education. Lutin spent several months studying the Elbert Smith case and finally decided to contact attorney Jerry Kilgore, who had previously been attorney general of Virginia. He met with Smith in prison and offered to represent his interests for free.
“I didn’t know what to expect when I went to meet him. But he seemed very intelligent to me. She asked all the right questions. She wanted to learn how to get through the parole process and how to make it work, but most of all she wanted to reunite with his family,” Kilgore recalled.
It took almost two years for Smith’s case for early release to be heard in court. The meeting did not take place until January 2023, a day after Finney-Smith participated in Dallas’ home game against Washington. Jason Kidd released the forward from practice so he could travel to Virginia, accompanied by Lutin and Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison.
At the time, team representatives didn’t even know if they would be able to be in the courtroom, but they wanted to support Finney-Smith on this difficult journey. As a result, they still participated in the meeting: they introduced themselves and explained why they were there. Kilgore also showed written testimony from Cuban, Mavericks general manager Synth Marshall and other franchise executives vouching for Finney-Smith. Even Rick Carlisle, who coached Dallas during his first five years with the team, joined the process remotely.
“In basketball, players don’t usually talk about these things, but with the Mavericks it’s different. I had to talk to five strangers about things that were very personal to me, but I felt supported in the courtroom,” Finney-Smith said.
Dorian Finney-Smith
Photo: Ron Jenkins/Getty Images
Kilgore’s key argument for Elbert Smith’s release was that the family was willing to provide him with the financial and emotional support he needed, as well as a place to live and a job at the family charity. And since none of those present had much to say about Elbert, who spent 30 years behind bars, the emphasis was on the personality and good character of his son.
And it worked. The commission, which had previously granted early release to only 23 of the 1,255 convicts who requested it, decided in favor of Smith. In addition, two of the five participants abandoned their membership during the process, which delayed consideration of the case, but the other three, it seems, became imbued with this family history.
Due to unforeseen circumstances, it took Smith another five months to complete the pre-release program. In the summer, six Greensville Correctional Facility inmates died due to drug overdoses, following which a boycott occurred there, significantly delaying the progress of their release.
But on December 19, Smith was finally released from prison. His son was given a day off in Brooklyn so she could go to Virginia and meet Elbert with his family.
“We just hugged each other. They hugged each other for a long, long time. It was very emotional. It’s here for Christmas and that’s all that matters. This is the best Christmas gift I have ever received.
My children will be able to meet their grandfather. This is what we talked about, what he wanted to come home to. Thanks to the Mavs family for this. This is outside of basketball. It is impossible to even try to put into words what they did in this situation. I will always love Dallas and this organization,” Finney-Smith said.
Overall, this is a story with a happy ending. Finney-Smith has finally awaited the release of his father, from whom she was separated at a very young age, and is ready to live a normal life, although no longer in Dallas. This is a great example of a player and team becoming more than just partners. And in Dorian’s case, the Mavericks are almost like a second family.
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