Sometimes, you get an early Christmas gift. According to the New York Post, Brooklyn Nets forward Dorian Finney-Smith is ecstatic that his father, who has been in prison for almost 30 years, is finally out and home with him. It was an emotional early Christmas present for Finney-Smith and his family.
Elbert Smith reunited with his NBA son on Dec. 19 at the Greensville Correctional Center in Virginia.
Smith was in prison for 28 years, nine months, and 10 days, but Finney-Smith had to wait four “long-ass” hours to be able to finally embrace him.
“Last 48 hours, it’s been exciting, long, just because they didn’t give us a specific time, they just gave us a specific date,” Finney-Smith said while discussing his father’s release before the Nets played their cross-city rivals, the New York Knicks at Barclays Center.
“It was a long ass four hours just waiting on them to give you that phone call to tell you he’s ready. It was exciting, though. He gets to watch the first game in the house without having to share the TV with anyone else. It’s fun.”
Finney-Smith previously played for the Dallas Mavericks and was brought over to the Brooklyn team in the trade for Kyrie Irving last season.
Mavericks owner Mark Cuban helped get his father released by petitioning the Virginia Parole Board to look at his father’s case. After agreeing, the board unanimously voted 3-0 to grant Smith parole in July. Five months later, Finney-Smith could hug his father for the first time since he was a baby. The Brooklyn Net bought his mother and Smith’s former wife, Desiree, a house in Virginia where he can live.
“It was amazing,” Finney-Smith said. “Just me trying to feel him out. I had to touch his arms, shoulders, just to get a feel for him. I hadn’t touched him or remember ever touching him. It was emotional. The hug lasted for longer than I probably thought.”
The Nets permitted Finney-Smith to get his father before he returned to New York for Wednesday’s night contest against the Knicks.
Smith was given a sentence of 44 years in prison after a jury convicted him of second-degree murder on Jan. 25, 1995. He was arrested after he and his co-defendant, Diefen McGann, went to collect a debt from a man named Willie Anderson, according to the Dallas Morning News. The incident took place at an auto repair shop in Virginia Beach.
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