Russ Smith has never been gun-shy.
An unheralded recruit coming out of New York, Smith ended up at Louisville where he eventually morphed into an all-american by his senior season, earning the nickname ‘Russdiculous’ because of his off-court antics and his penchant for taking, ahem, liberty of Rick Pitino’s decision to give him the green-light offensively.
That trigger-happy brand of basketball didn’t end in college. Smith played for the Grizzlies for a couple of seasons, failing to find a permanent role on the roster, but he did manage to set the NBA D-League record for points in a game with 65.
But that pales in comparison to what he’s doing right now in China’s second division. Playing for a team called Luoyang, Smith is averaging 61.4 points through five games, including an 81-point eruption this week:
Russ Smith’s 81 points today in 142-130 win
— Sportando (@Sportando) July 5, 2017
2PT: 15/26
3PT: 10/17
FT: 21/22
8 rebounds
7 assists
5 steals
Smith is in China this summer because he’s hoping to attract the eye of an NBA team to bring him into training camp.
Whether or not that is successful remains to be seen, but I have little doubt that Russdiculous is enjoying the hell out of his time getting paid to play in a league where he’s allowed to shooting 43 times in a game.