Nolan Smith was the only toddler setting screens on NBA paint. Born to Louisville legend and Sacramento shooting guard Derek Smith, Nolan learned to dribble a basketball before he learned to walk.
“The first person to put a ball in my hands was my dad. I felt like it was at birth,” he told Hoops HQ. “I was born into this game and around it. I fell in love with the game, I fell in love with where this game can take you.”
Smith’s career has taken him from Portland to Croatia, and through Division I, the NBA G League and a stint with the Trail Blazers. He planned to spend the 2025-26 season as an assistant on Penny Hardaway’s staff at Memphis, but those plans changed suddenly and unexpectedly in July when Smith was given his first head coaching job at Tennessee State, an HBCU located in Nashville. The job came open when the previous coach, Brian Collins, took a job as an assistant with the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies. TSU is an old-guard powerhouse and won three straight NAIA national championships from 1957-59. Since then, the Tigers have transitioned to Division I, and following a 50-year streak of middling records, they had three consecutive winning seasons in the Ohio Valley Conference under Collins. It’s up to Smith to maintain — and advance — that momentum.
“The job really came out of nowhere,” he said. “(My agent) asked if I’d be interested in the position. I said, ‘Absolutely.’ I’ve known a lot about Tennessee State. I’ve been knowing a lot about HBCUs all around the country my whole life.”
With a roster in-development and an understaffed front office, Smith must scramble if he hopes to honor TSU’s legacy. “Everything has to do with winning,” he said. “If the players get sick of hearing the word winning, then this isn’t gonna be the program for them.”
Nolan’s father, Derek was rostered with the Warriors, Clippers, Kings, 76ers and Celtics during his nine seasons in the NBA
Getty Images
Tennessee State is the latest and most surprising stop in a basketball journey that began at birth. Smith’s father Derek, an NBA journeyman, gave him the blueprint. In 1994, Derek joined the Washington Bullets as an assistant coach, surrounding six-year-old Nolan with elite professional talent. “Watching those guys, seeing it at the highest level, I was like, ‘Okay, that’s my dream,” Smith said.
In the summer of 1996, Derek died of a heart attack. In 34 years, he had won an NCAA title, played across the NBA, raised a family and taken on a coaching post. His life set the tone for Nolan’s. “I always wanted to walk in his footsteps and honor him,” Smith said. “It was always a duty of mine to give back as a coach and be a leader, be a mentor, be a servant, and help mold them into great men, great fathers and great sons.”
Derek’s likeness is tattooed to Nolan’s bicep, framed by a halo and flanked by his number: 43.
After Derek’s passing, Nolan continued to attend Bullets practices. Over the next six years, he remained a staple at home games. In high school Smith transferred to Oak Hill Academy, where he won a national championship alongside future NBA players Michael Beasley and Ty Lawson.
Smith signed with Duke in his junior year, forming a bond with Blue Devils coach Mike Krzyzewski that remains strong to this day. “He’s the best. He’s always been an amazing human being, ” Smith said. “He always remembers Father’s Day. Never forgets a birthday. Always asks about the family. It was so many little things that I could pick out that made him such a special person.”
Nolan Smith stands beside Seth Curry during the West regional semifinal of the 2011 NCAA Tournament
Getty Images
Smith started 21 times in his sophomore season. Off the court, Duke was building championship chemistry. “I was always just a sponge of the game, and to be around guys like Jon Scheyer, Kyle Singler,” said Smith. “We were more than just competitors, we were all obsessed with the game of basketball.”
In 2010, Duke won the ACC, then captured the NCAA championship. As a senior, Smith led the conference with 20.6 points per game and earned First-Team All-ACC honors. He was drafted by the Trailblazers, but harbored thoughts of returning to Duke. “There definitely was a thought in the back of my mind, man, one day, how cool would it be to be a coach here?’” he said. “I didn’t know when that would come.”
During two seasons with the Blazers, Smith played in 84 games, with four starts, and averaged 3.3 points in 9.9 minutes. He spent the next two years playing in the G League and abroad in Croatia and Turkey. In 2014, he tore his ACL. For a kid who had grown up on the Bullets’ floor, facing the end of his playing career was heartbreak.
“I wasn’t really ready to stop playing,” Smith said. “But I hurt my knee after a full year of rehab.”
That’s when Krzyzewski called and offered Smith an assistant position. “Coach K was like, ‘you’re ready for this,” Smith recalled. “I took some time to really think about it. Didn’t take long, because the opportunity being offered by Coach K was very, very enticing.”
Coaching under Krzyzewski “was different,” Smith said. “He was so masterful with his style of motivation, his style of giving confidence. Everything was planned out.”
In six seasons, Smith climbed from Director of Basketball Operations to assistant coach. As Krzyzewski prepared to retire, Nolan thought of home. “There was always something in me that wanted to go back to the city of Louisville,” he said. That thought became reality at the end of the 2021-22 season, when Kenny Payne became Louisville’s Head Coach. Payne and Derek Smith were former teammates at Louisville and best friends. Hiring Nolan was a natural move, but the Cardinals managed just 12 wins across two disastrous seasons. Needless to say, it was a far cry from his experiences in Durham. “I learned how to show up every single day,” said Smith. “Those are lessons that I would have never gotten at Duke.”
Smith takes center stage at the 2022 Duke Basketball banquet, flanked by Amile Jefferson, Chris Carrawell, Coach K, and Jon Scheyer (left to right)
Getty Images
Just 12 hours after Louisville’s first round exit from the 2024 ACC Tournament, Payne was axed. For the first time in his life, Smith was out of basketball. “It was definitely a very unique situation to be in,” Smith said. “You get back and you sit in the room, and the AD comes in and lets you know that the head coach is being let go. And that means you’re being let go as well.”
With Payne down and Krzyzewski out, Smith was at a crossroads. “It’s a very weird time trying to get out of your office and get out of the way,” he said. “You start searching for the next thing.” That came in the form of a conversation with Hardaway. He had tried to hire Smith as an assistant for Memphis in 2020, but Smith declined so he could work for Krzyzewski through his retirement. This time, Smith was ready to listen. Smith signed with Hardaway a month and a half before the beginning of non-conference play. “Coach Hardaway’s style of coaching was an NBA mindset,” he said. “That free-flowing playstyle, teaching guys how to play while being aggressive defensively.”
With Smith riding shotgun, the Tigers drove through the AAC and scored a bid to the NCAA Tournament. “I love everything that I learned under Coach K, but going to Coach Hardaway was refreshing,” Smith said. “I love being aggressive, I love stressing, I love mixing it up defensively and making teams uncomfortable.”
Smith went into the summer assuming he would be back at Memphis for a second season. Shortly after Collins resigned in June to join the Grizzlies, Smith’s agent gave him a call. He was introduced as head coach of Tennessee State on July 21. “I wanted to do some special things,” Smith said. “(I thought) about the history, the city, the athletic director and president, their vision for the program and for the school, and bringing it back to excellence.”
With two months until tip-off, Smith is under pressure to teach his guys to play basketball the way he learned it. He has been pleased with the effort they have put in so far. “We have a lot of good players, good guards, good wings,” said Smith. “Seven returners from last year’s ten that lost the semifinals. All those guys have the hunger.”
TSU returns quality guards in 6-foot-5 senior Brandon Weston and 6-foot-1 senior Justus Jackson, but suffers from a lack of forwards and a late start in the portal. New to the lineup is 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Khalil London, who demonstrated great vision on limited minutes last season. “If you have a really good guard, you’re going to have a chance to win some games,” Smith said. Though TSU reached the Ohio Valley Conference semifinal last year, the Tigers averaged 15.3 turnovers, the fifth highest rate in Division I. “I think our biggest thing is taking care of the ball and playing selfless,” Smith said.
Smith was excited to sign sophomore guard Khalil London, who displayed tremendous potential with the College of Charleston last season
Getty Images
Though practice starts early September, Smith has yet to fill his front office. Like Hardaway, he’s got a contact book full of guys “searching for the next thing.” “The guys that I will pick out here, I’ve had in mind for a long, long time,” he said.
Smith has optimism riding high in Nashville. Time will tell whether that will last once the games begin, but though this is Smith’s first head coaching job, he has spent his entire life preparing for this opportunity. “I’m bringing back excellence,” he said. “That’s something that I’ve been a part of my whole life. The colors just happened to be the icing on the cake. I’m back in blue, and excited for the opportunity to do something great.”
More Like This