‘I’ve proven myself every single time’ Former Gonzaga guard Malachi

Jul. 29—LAS VEGAS — Six years ago, roughly 350 Division I schools neglected to offer Malachi Smith a scholarship when the guard was coming out of Illinois’ Belleville West High School. That list included two of the three colleges he’d eventually play for: Chattanooga and Gonzaga.

Smith wasn’t frustrated or irked when a much smaller pool of basketball teams bypassed the accomplished college guard during the NBA draft last month at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Motivated? Yes. Determined? Sure. But not discouraged.

When you consider his career to this point, it almost felt par for the course.

“I’ve been here before and it just makes me more hungry, bigger chip on my shoulder,” Smith said. “… I come out the end of it just fine every time.”

Smith, who scored 1,626 career points at Wright State, Chattanooga and Gonzaga, quickly turned the page to identify a team that would bring him on board as an undrafted free agent.

The Portland Trail Blazers hosted the Gonzaga guard for a predraft workout on June 18 and Mike Schmitz had evaluated Smith in 2021-22 at Chattanooga while Portland’s first-year assistant general manager was still working for ESPN as a lead draft analyst.

Other NBA teams were in contact with Smith and his agent, Michael Lelchitski of SIG, but Portland offered an Exhibit 10 contract and opportunity to participate in preseason training camp after traveling with the Blazers to NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.

“I had a lot of options that were offering me a chance to go to training camp and honestly, it was just based on who liked me the most, who seemed to have the most interest,” Smith said. “So, we’re trying to play the long game and at the end of the day, an opportunity to go to training camp, to earn a two-way is an opportunity.

“All I can do is control what I can control and I’ll go to training camp and try to do my best.”

Smith’s winding college basketball career spanned five season and still ended one year earlier than Zags fans hoped it…