Read time: 6 min.

I talked about my status as one of the world’s preemptive collectors of Theron Smith’s basketball cards a while back. I knew I had more lying around the house somewhere and started searching through my garage and closet. It turns out that I’m much less formal when it comes to basketball storage than when I was a kid, but here’s what I found! My collection’s up to twenty-seven cards and counting. 

Tee Smith was born in 1980 in Winter Haven, Florida. A high school standout, he came to Ball State and made an immediate impact as a freshman during the 1999-2000 season. Despite playing only three games his senior year after he tore his ACL, Smith still wound up as one of Ball State’s top scorers and rebounders of all time. His tenure with the Cardinals coincided with the peak of my fandom! Although he was offered a medical redshirt to return for a fifth season, Smith controversially declared for the NBA draft instead, inadvertently setting Ball State basketball back for years to come.

Season	G	FG%	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS	AVG
1999-00	31	.464	.712	237	47	21	11	377	12.2
2000-01	30	.462	.701	244	48	27	6	489	16.3
2001-02	35	.513	.743	381	48	39	22	687	19.6
2002-03	3	.361	.750	20	5	1	0	46	15.3
Career	99	.479	.725	882	148	88	39	1599	16.2

Smith went undrafted, but a deep Memphis Grizzlies team signed him to a two-year contract in the off-season. After appearing in twenty games for the Grizzlies during a rookie year hampered by injuries, he was selected by the Charlotte Bobcats, a brand new team, in the 2004 NBA expansion draft. Smith appeared sparingly in his second year before playing for the Denver Nuggets during the NBA’s summer league and, later, the Florida Flame of the NBDL. After that, he played professionally internationally before retiring in 2014.

Season	G	FG%	FT%	REB	AST	STL	BLK	PTS	AVG
2003-04	20	.372	.750	41	7	5	5	44	2.2
2004-05	33	.324	.875	116	28	6	4	105	3.2
Career	53	.335	.833	157	35	11	9	149	2.8

Smith’s pro career was brief and unimpressive. Despite that, he was one of only three Ball State Cardinals to play a game in the NBA! That’s part of why I collect his cards. The other reason is that Smith grew up with a stutter that he corrected with the help of speech therapy while he was in college. I grew up with speech impediments as well. I was lucky to have a role model who balled out on the court while he dealt with the same things I did.

I was an avid collector of basketball cards throughout my childhood. Although 2003-04 was near the tail end of my passion, I still pulled middle card, #265 in the 288-card 2003-04 Bazooka series, from a box I bought at Walmart. Rookie cards like this one were inserted in one out of every three packs. The card to the right comes from the Bazooka’s 2003-04 Gold parallel set. Parallel cards feature design differences, and, depending on the card and player, they’re often worth more than the base series. Unfortunately, the printing on mine is dramatically off-center, so it wouldn’t be worth that much if I lost my mind and had it graded.

None of Tee Smith’s cards are worth that much, but that’s what makes them fun and easy to collect. I don’t have one, but Topps’ 2003-04 Bazooka series also released a parallel series of mini-cards In addition to the base and Gold series. I do have the magenta press plate used to print them, though. I bought it online and at $11, it’s the most expensive Tee Smith “card” I own.

Topps got a lot of mileage from the Getty Images photo showing Smith driving past Kwame Brown of the Washington Wizards. In addition to cards I’ve already shown, the company also used it on #172 of its 2003-04 Finest series, which consisted of 185 cards. In January, a Topps Finest Lebron James refractor rookie card similar to Smith’s but without an autograph was sold by Goldin Auctions for $3,600! The most I’ve seen one of Smith’s cards like mine sell for is $4.84.

Tee Smith’s 2003-04 Topps Chrome refractor card, #160 in the set.

I’ve got one more Tee Smith card that uses the same photo. It’s from the 2003-04 Topps Chrome refractor set. “Refractor” is a trademark of Topps that refers to a special coating that reflects a rainbow finish from certain angles. Other companies make similar cards under different names; Panini’s are called Prizms.

The 2004-05 Fleer Showcase series consisted of 120 cards. They’re striking cards, so much so that Tee Smith uses his card, number forty-seven in the series, as his profile photo on Twitter.

The Bowman Gum Company was founded by Jacob Bowman in 1927. Topps bought it in 1956 and shut the division down. In 1989, the Bowman name was brought back as a premium brand that emphasized rookie cards. Tee Smith’s was #64 of the 118-card 2003-04 Bowman Signature line. As was often the case, he didn’t sign the actual card. Instead, Topps sent Smith sheets of stickers to sign that he mailed back to be applied directly to the cards’ faces.

I understand why companies lean towards sticker autographs: it’s less likely that a card will be damaged, and manufacturers probably prefer to have signatures ready in advance to produce a wider range of premium cards. This offering from the 2003-04 SP set is cool because Tee Smith signed the card itself. In fact, he signed 100 of them, and mine is number 49.

58 cards existed in Upper Deck’s 2004-05 Pro Sigs set, and Tee Smith’s was numbered PS-TS. The card features a sticker autograph and, as far as I know, it’s the last of his that I have lying around the house. My search uncovered some other sweet finds I might write about in the future, but I don’t think I could seriously collect basketball cards at this stage. After Panini became the NBA’s exclusive trading card licensee before the 2009-10 season, prices jumped astronomically for anything valuable.

I find collecting obscure players like Tee Smith and Oliver Miller a lot more fun than chasing down some ridiculous one-of-one insert of a superstar or legend. As for any future collecting, I’d love to get some Bonzi Wells and Rawle Marshall cards since they’re the only other Ball State Cardinals to make it to the NBA. I have some of Bonzi’s already, but nothing that interesting. If I find something cool, I’m sure I’ll write about it here!