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WASHINGTON – In the spring and summer of a career, players can afford to pursue the pastures that are the greenest, meaning the ones with the most money.But as a career heads toward its end, plugging yourself into the situation that best lends itself to success becomes the most important thing. For Katie Smith, professional women's basketball's all-time leading scorer, the Washington Mystics provided perhaps that last best opportunity to add to an already loaded trophy case.
So, Smith, 35, signed a free-agent contract Tuesday with the Mystics, looking for the chance to grab one more championship ring.
"I obviously don't have a lot of career left," Smith said. "I'm toward the twilight of it with a couple of years left. It's like where do you want to finish it off, where can you help and where do you want to be?"
Smith, who won two titles in the defunct American Basketball League, and two more rings with the Detroit (now Tulsa) Shock, to go along with three Olympic gold medals, thought the Mystics, one of the WNBA's younger teams, could give her one last chance at a title.
"They've solidified where they want to be," Smith said. "I trust (head coach) Julie (Plank). I have faith in her and what she's about and how much work she's going to put into it."
For Plank, who has been trying to get Smith to play for her since Smith was a standout high school player from Logan, Ohio, and Plank was an assistant coach at Stanford, Tuesday was the culmination of a long pursuit.
"She's a winner on the court and she's a winner off the court," said Plank, who like Smith played collegiate ball at Ohio State. "Katie's been places that we want to go."
Smith, a 6-foot combo player, will bring versatility and a veteran presence to the Mystics, who were bounced from the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs by the Indiana Fever.
Smith, the first woman to score 6,000 points in American professional women's basketball, will see time at four positions, in a starting and reserve role.
"The wonderful thing about Katie is she complements so many people and she allows you to have a lot of different lineups," Mystics general manager Angela Taylor said. "We can go big with Katie at the point. We can go small and have Katie at the four. It depends on who she's on the floor with."
Smith began her professional career in 1997 with the Columbus Quest of the ABL, where she won two titles. When that league folded in 1998, she was assigned to Minnesota of the WNBA, where she promptly won a scoring title.
She was traded to Detroit during the 2005 season and helped lead the Shock to two league titles. When the Shock moved to Tulsa in the offseason, Smith declared herself a free agent.
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