Lanny Smith: "Trying to have that Jerry West on my chest"

Since I know people tire of my writing, I contacted former Idaho Stampede point guard (and Sacramento Kings pre-season player)  Lanny Smith to give the D-League faithful an update on what he's been doing since his injury back in January.  Smith's come back from a season-ending injury before (while playing his college ball at Houston) and I have no doubt he'll be able to come back from this, as good, then better, than ever. 

First and foremost I have to give a big shout out to my guy Scott for giving me this opportunity to share my thoughts and feelings here on RU. I'm used to the micro-blogging of facebook and Twitter (shameless plug in 3...2...1) - which you can follow me on Twitter - but this will be my first official blog.

So where do I start? A quick update about my injury and rehab: I am about a month out of surgery and I'm doing rehab five days a week. I had a cartilage repair after playing about a month and a half with torn articular cartilage. Right now rehab is really boring because I'm still in the non weight bearing stage and am limited in what I can do. I'm still waiting to get the DVD of the game of the injury so I can find out who it was that fell into my knee and then proceed to plan my revenge! (JUST A JOKE)... Injuries are a part of the game and I just happened to be on the bad end of this collision. I'll be back soon.

I've read studies and heard about how your attitude can affect your healing: From cancer patients to people with life threatening injuries.  It was amazing to see the correlation between having a positive attitude and the way it can inexplicably help healing and in some cases even speed up the process. I personally have been leaning on my faith to help keep me positive and I know I will be back soon and better than ever. I truly believe I am getting so close to realizing my dream of making it to the NBA so I don't have any time to throw a pity party. I mean, I have enjoyed my D-League experience, but I'm trying to have that Jerry West on my chest.

Oh yeah, your boy Lanny Smith, aka LBoogie, is now also known as a Guiness Book of World Records holder... kind of.  I was in attendance this past weekend at the NBA All-Star game in Dallas and I was 1 of the 108,713 fans that made up the largest crowd ever to watch a basketball game in the history of the world!! So I assume when I go visit my boy Morris Almond in Springfield, I should see my picture somewhere at the Basketball Hall of Fame. But seriously, it was a beautiful sight to see all those people in Cowboys stadium to see the game of basketball.

I love this game, but in my pursuit of trying to be one of the select few to be fortunate enough to play in the NBA, I forgot about how entertaining it is to just watch. Sunday at the All-Star game I was strictly a fan again. Basketball has always been my first love, and Sunday I fell in love with the game all over again. I guess that was fitting since it was also Valentines Day. I was a little down earlier about not having a valentine, but after watching that beautiful game of basketball, I guess I got to spend the night with my love anyway...