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How Mavericks helped Dorian Finney-Smith secure father’s parole after 29 years in prison.



How Mavericks helped Dorian Finney-Smith secure father’s parole after 29 years in prison.

by sewsgup

14 Comments

  1. sewsgup

    Contractually, Dorian Finney-Smith’s seven-season Mavericks tenure ended on Feb. 6, when he was traded to Brooklyn as part of the Kyrie Irving-to-Dallas blockbuster.

    Personally, Finney-Smith’s bond with the Mavericks franchise quietly has continued, evidenced Wednesday by a profound occurrence in Richmond, Va.

    The Virginia Parole Board voted 3-0 to grant conditional freedom to Finney-Smith’s father, Elbert Smith Jr., who has been incarcerated for the last 28 years and four months of Dorian’s 30-year life.

    “My whole family is in tears,” Finney-Smith told The News shortly after learning of the board’s vote. “It hasn’t set in; probably won’t until I see him out. I haven’t touched my dad since … ever.”

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    So compelling was Elbert Smith’s case that the vote’s outcome defied steep odds in a state with historically rigid parole standards. Before Wednesday, the board had granted parole in only 23 of 1,255 cases it had considered in 2023.

    The news was an answered prayer after a generation of hopelessness for Elbert Smith, 52, and his family. By extension that includes the Mavericks, who helped Elbert’s son navigate a labyrinth of legal and political obstacles to get the parole board to consider the case.

    At issue was not Elbert Smith’s guilt or innocence in a Jan. 25, 1995 slaying, but whether the board deemed his prison time and rehabilitation to be sufficient — and whether Dorian’s plans to help Elbert return to society are adequate safeguards for the community.

    For his conditional release, which is expected to occur in the next few weeks, Elbert Smith largely can thank Dorian, Mark Cuban Companies chief of staff Jason Lutin and former Virginia attorney general Jerry Kilgore.

    Mavericks’ involvement
    Nearly three years ago, Finney-Smith explained his father’s circumstances to Lutin, a fellow University of Florida graduate who also holds a law degree from that school. Lutin spent months gathering background about the case and helping Dorian explore legal and political avenues.

    They turned to Kilgore, Virginia’s 2005 Republican nominee for governor and a partner with the law firm Cozen O’Connor. He met with Elbert Smith in Virginia’s Wallens Ridge supermax prison and offered to represent him pro bono.

    That was more than two years ago. In Virginia and other case-backlogged states, it takes months and sometimes years for prisoners to have their parole cases considered.

    “Lutin’s the GOAT; he’s that dude,” said Finney-Smith, calling Lutin and Kilgore his one-two punch. “Jason told me, ‘You’re always family’ and he backed it up, for sure. He could have put it on the back burner, especially after I got traded.”

    Elbert Smith’s parole hearing occurred while Smith was still a Maverick. In-season, in fact, between games.

    The Jan. 25 hearing in Richmond, with parole board chairman and former Virginia Supreme Court judge Chadwick Dotson presiding, occurred the day after the Mavericks hosted Washington.

    Coach Jason Kidd excused Finney-Smith from practice and the team flight to Phoenix so that Finney-Smith could travel to Virginia, accompanied by Lutin and Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison.

    “We didn’t even know if we would be able to be in the room, but that didn’t matter,” Harrison said. “It was all about Dorian, for him to know that he didn’t have to fly there by himself; that his team was there to support him.”

    Harrison and Lutin did in fact take part in the hearing, introducing themselves and explaining why they’d come. Kilgore also submitted written testimonials from Mavericks governor Mark Cuban, Harrison and other franchise leaders, all vouching for Finney-Smith’s character. Kilgore and Cuban have not yet responded to requests for comment.

    Joining the hearing virtually was Indiana coach Rick Carlisle, Finney-Smith’s Mavericks coach for his first five NBA seasons. Carlisle described Finney-Smith’s rise from undrafted free agent to Mavericks starter and called him one of the most dedicated and reliable players he’s coached.

    A key facet of the hearing was for Kilgore to present in detail how Finney-Smith and his family plan to provide Elbert Smith a stable home environment in Chesapeake, Va., as well as financial and emotional support and a job with the Finney Family First Foundation.

    “Obviously we couldn’t say much about Dorian’s father because we don’t know him,” Harrison said. “But we could talk about Dorian and the amazing human that he is, all the beautiful characteristics that make him Dorian.”

    With six months and a successful outcome in hindsight, Finney-Smith on Wednesday became emotional while recalling the trip to Virginia and the hearing.

    He remembered confiding about his father’s plight to then-Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosely. Mosely encouraged Finney-Smith to speak to Cuban, who advised Finney-Smith to meet with Lutin and told him the franchise would provide any support necessary.

    “In basketball, players don’t usually bring up stuff like this, but the Mavericks are different as far as relationships,” Finney-Smith said. “Now I had to talk to five people I don’t know about things that were very personal to me, but I could feel the support in the room.”

    Five people. The Virginia parole board at the time had five members. In the ensuing weeks, two members cycled out and have yet to be replaced, complicating and delaying Elbert Smith’s case. The hearing, though, obviously resonated with the remaining board members.

    ‘People like me don’t make it to the NBA’
    Before the hearing, Finney-Smith submitted a letter to the board that in part read: “Hopefully this can paint a better picture of the man I love and the man I know he will be, and I will help ensure he is, if he is granted parole.”

    Lutin, however, said it was Finney-Smith’s heartrending live testimony that caused chairman Dotson to become visibly emotional.

    Finney-Smith described life without a physically present father, a person with whom, for 28 years, his interactions have been by telephone or through acrylic walls in prison visitor booths.

    Dorian recounted how his single-parent mother, Desiree, worked multiple jobs in Portsmouth, Va., to provide for her six children. And how the family’s world was shattered when Dorian’s older half-brother, Ra-Shawn, was mortally shot at a high school party, with 15-year-old Dorian witnessing the tragedy.

    At 16, while blossoming into a star at Portsmouth’s Norcom High, Dorian, too became a father. He played one season at Virginia Tech, then transferred to Florida, where coach Billy Donovan wondered why he seemed socially withdrawn.

    Finney-Smith told Donovan of his brother’s murder and the anger and sense of abandonment he felt toward his father.

    Courtesy photos: (Left) A young Dorian Finney-Smith is held by his father, Elbert Smith, dated Aug. 24, 1993. / (Right) Elbert Smith with Dorian Finney-Smith (middle, on horse) and his other siblings posing for a photo.(Dorian Finney-Smith)
    At Donovan’s urging, Finney-Smith returned to Virginia, got counseling and forged a closer relationship with Elbert. When Finney-Smith later went unselected in the NBA draft and considered quitting basketball, it was his father who persuaded him not to give up.

    “People like me don’t make it to the NBA,” a tearful Finney-Smith told Dotson and the parole board. “People like me end up like my father. I should either be in jail like him or dead like my brother. I should not be where I am today.”

    After the hearing, Finney-Smith and Harrison flew to Phoenix to rejoin the Mavericks. Harrison said Finney-Smith seemed upbeat and hopeful. Harrison’s takeaway from hearing Elbert Smith’s story, though, was wistfulness.

    “Growing up, I’d seen and heard of these types of situations,” he said. “I thought it was sad. Just tragic.”

    The following night, Finney-Smith had 18 points and 12 rebounds in a victory over the Suns.

    Harrison said the decision 10 days later to trade Finney-Smith was difficult, but it was the only way the franchise could acquire a star of Irving’s caliber to pair with Luka Doncic.

  2. DoncicsRoadTo200kg

    Say what you want about Mark Cuban but he consistently does stuff like this.

  3. msterling2012

    This is fucking awesome. I hope DFS comes back to Dallas after this contract.

  4. ketaminedream33

    Thoughts and prayers to Willie Anderson’s family. Man was killed by someone who was the judge and jury over a debt.

  5. DynamixRo

    >McGann admitted to police that after regaining control of the gun, he fired three shots at Anderson, who staggered outside, collapsed into a ditch and died.
    >
    >McGann and Smith initially were charged with first-degree murder. McGann on April 10, 1996, accepted a plea deal for a lesser charge, voluntary manslaughter, and a five-year prison sentence.
    >
    >Smith was offered the same deal, but his court-appointed attorney advised him to turn it down and go to trial, reasoning that it was McGann who fired the fatal shots.
    >
    >On March 29, 1996, a jury convicted Smith of amended charges, second-degree murder and malicious wounding. He was sentenced to 44 years in prison.

    That’s some grade A justice right there.

  6. DFS has been one of my favorite mavs in recent history. I was really bummed when he got traded. All the best to him and his fam

  7. elxhapo

    Mark Cuban the best owner in the league hands down.

  8. Twinkiebob_

    Jesus he still killed a man with his hood buddy…

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