Dorian Finney-Smith participated in innumerable games before to entering the NBA, totaling around 600 games. But none was more poignant than the one he played live in front of his father on Saturday.
Finally, Elbert Smith, who had just been released from a Virginia jail in December, was in the stands to watch his son play. And it was evident how much the Nets forward valued the occasion when he saw Finney-Smith sprint straight to his father courtside at Barclays Center for an embrace following the team’s 113-103 victory over the Pistons.
In just twenty-four minutes, Finney-Smith finished with seven rebounds and two points on 1-for-5 shooting. According to the Post Finney said,
“He didn’t care about none of that. He was just happy. He was smiling the whole game,” “All I saw was his phone. He was recording the whole game. He’s new to the iPhone and still figuring it all out.”
That makes sense. Smith served 28 years, 9 months, and 10 days in prison before being released from Greensville Correctional Center in December.
Heartwarming story of Dorian Finney-Smith
On January 25, 1995, the ex-Navy veteran had been a part of a deadly tragedy.
Finney-Smith traveled to see him after he was released from prison. And now, following several months of correspondence and collaboration with representatives of the Virginia Department of Corrections, Elbert Smith was granted permission to depart. Finney-Smith said,
“Just trying to get him here, really, just with the whole [issue], his situation. We had to wait a certain amount of time for him to travel. So just getting here, that was the whole thing,”
Smith came in New York on Friday following the Nets’ practice, and he spent Saturday night courtside beside Finney-Smith’s mother. Wearing a white Nets shirt, a black cap, and an ear-to-ear Cheshire Cat grin, he was shooting everything.
