Click the "Stories" tab (immediately above)...
...for an exciting report on this event.
Firepower Sydney Kings Website
(Links to Stories)
You wouldn’t think the six-foot-five Sydney Kings captain and Australian Boomer was born to do anything except play basketball, but Jason Smith’s first love growing up as a Melbourne boy was AFL. “But after having my teeth knocked out for the fifth time, I started my basketball career when I was about 12,” he says. Jason never dreamt that he would have the opportunity to represent his country in Basketball, let alone two differant Olympics Games and the recent Melbourne Commonwealth Games, where the Boomers struck gold.
“It’s a real blessing to be able to represent your country. In sport, there is nothing you can achieve better than that,” he says. Jason grew up going to church, encouraged by his Christian mother, but left as a teenager as basketball became a higher priority. After Jason returned from a basketball scholarship at the California Lutheran University where he met his wife, Carla, he started returning to his Christian roots. “I didn’t make a commitment to Christ until I was 22 or 23,” he says.
The 31-year-old says meeting with chaplains and other Christian athletes in Athens at the 2004 Olympic Games exposed him to the opportunities he had as high-profile Christian sportsman. “Before Athens, I hadn’t been inclined towards the mission side of Christianity. I was more focused on my own Christian development,” Jason says.
“But after talking with other athletes who were using their Christianity to influence people and bring people to Christ, I really started to question myself.” When Jason returned to Australia he asked Sydney Kings chaplain Gary Speckman for ideas about how to better share my faith with others. “Gary has helped me find ways to get out there and do some of that work,” Jason says.
