Johns, Smith Healthy and Back
Published on October 2, 2002 under NBA G League (G League)
Fayetteville Patriots News Release
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C., October 2, 2002 â As the Fayetteville Patriots began to make vast improvement from a slow start in their inaugural season, starting center Darrell Johns and starting forward Antwain Smith both had their seasons come to an end due to an injury.
Johns and Smith will get another chance to help the Patriots continue the progress the team made midway through last season as they head a list of 2001-2002 Patriots who have re-signed with the NBDL.
Center Bayonne Taty (Seton Hall) and guard Tai Crutchfield also re-signed with the league. All four men will attend Patriots training camp, which starts Nov. 3. With the signing of Johns, Smith, Taty and Crutchfield, six of the 11 players that finished the season with the Patriots have re-signed NBDL contracts.
Greg Stempin and Terrell McIntyre, who were the Patriots top two scorers respectively, announced their returns in the last two weeks. McIntyre is in New Orleans Hornets training camp and will return to the Patriots if he does not make the Hornets' 12-man roster.
It was McIntyre, who witnessed the end of Johns' season up close and personal. As both Johns and McIntyre went for a loose ball against North Charleston on Jan. 28, 2002, their heads collided causing blood to pour from Johns' forehead. The collision also caused nerve damage in Johns' shoulder, causing him to miss the remainder of the season.
Six weeks later, as Smith landed from trying to catch an alley-oop, he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee, ending his season on March 10.
Both men were starting to play better before their injuries. When the 7-foot-1 Johns went down, the Patriots lost one of the tallest and most improved players in the league. In November, Johns shot just 34 percent from the field, but over the next two months he shot 52 percent from the floor.
Before 2002 he was averaging 5.0 points and 3.5 rebounds per game, but on January 9 he posted his first double-double of his pro career with 12 points and 15 rebounds against North Charleston.
Ten days later he scored 10 points and grabbed 12 rebounds in another double-double performance. Johns averaged 5.5 points and 4.6 rebounds per game in 30 games with the Patriots. Johns attended Chicago State, where he averaged 11.6 points and 5.8 rebounds as a senior.
Smith also started to develop into a better player before he was sidelined. In December and January he started seven of the 20 games he played. When February ended, he had started all 13 games in that month. Smith's scoring average jumped almost 5 points from his 12.3 points per game average in December and January to his 16..9 points per game in February.
He closed the season 11th in the NBDL in scoring at 13.7 points per game and fifth in rebounding at 7.2 rebounds per game. He had 27 points and 14 rebounds in an 88-79 win over Asheville on Feb. 9, 2002. Smith attended St. Paul's College and was a Division II All-American his last three years at the school. Vancouver made him a second round pick (51st overall) in 1999.
Taty, a 6-10 center out of Seton Hall, was the center of attention this summer. Taty appeared on NBC's NBA Inside Stuff, a nationally syndicated program hosted by Summer Sanders and Ahmad Rashad. The Inside Stuff camera crew followed Taty as he visited the YMCA and three Boys & Girls Clubs in the Fayetteville community.
Taty earned the spot on Inside Stuff thanks to an internship he had with the NBDL and Coca-Cola. Taty averaged 1.6 points and 3.0 rebounds per game last season.
Crutchfield joined the Patriots on Feb. 5, 2002. The 6-6 guard averaged 5.2 points per game in 16.8 minutes per contest. He had 18 points and 4 rebounds in an 86-85 loss to Huntsville.
NBA G League Stories from October 2, 2002
- Johns, Smith Healthy and Back - Fayetteville Patriots
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