This Lakers Player Had a NEAR-DEATH Experience...

This guy went from being the best athlete in the 2018 draft class, to nearly dying from food allergy in his rookie season. After a month and a half in hospital, eating and drinking through feeding tubes attached to his body and losing 60 pounds of weight, Zaire's career ended before it could even begin. But this is a story about perseverance. And although he hasn't played an official NBA game in 6 years, Smith is still fighting for redemption. As a matter of fact, he's on the Lakers summer league team right now and at 27 years of age, he's looking better than ever. Smith can still get up there. Just look at this wild attempt to posterize the much bigger center. Whoa, that would've broken the internet, but he just lost the handle. This really happened back in 2018 when he was entering the NBA. How did he do that? Girl, but this is a alley-oop. He catches the 360, turns around, and dunks that one. That is fantastic. Smitty, that's something you see in a dunk contest. Here comes Stevenson, spins. And he's stuck back by the freshman sensation Smith. Watch this follow. Zaire Smith had a 360 to last game, and look at this follow. He's already in a good rhythm here tonight. Zaire Smith showing off his athleticism. Wow. At only 6 foot 4, Zaire was living above the rim in college. His freakish athletic skills allowed him not only to throw down spectacular dunks, but to become a defensive menace. Look at him blocking a couple of much bigger guys in a span of 5 seconds. That was impressive, but let's take a quick step back. Philadelphia has traded the rights of Mikel Bridges to the Phoenix Suns for Zaire Smith, who is the 16th pick in the draft. The Suns will also send a 2021 first round pick that they have from the Miami Heat to Philadelphia. So Mikel Bridges, who grew up dreaming of playing for the Sixers, mom works for the Sixers, he'll go to the Suns now. Zaire was headed to Philadelphia to play alongside Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, but he never got a real chance to showcase his talent. While in training camps, Smith fractured his foot and was expected to make a full recovery by December of 2018. But during his rehabilitation process, something much worse happened. He ate Thai chicken for lunch, went home and got into his shower. Minutes later, he was fighting for his life. It turned out that he had a severe allergy from the sesame in his foot. Zaire had to be hospitalized and suddenly, the basketball career that he had worked so hard for became secondary to simply surviving. He was learning to walk, run and do push-ups all over again and could barely recognize himself in the mirror. Many would've given up right there, but not Smith. Instead, he clawed his way back, regained his weight and made an improbable return in April of 2019, just 6 months after he faced death. Zaire was all smiles in the last game of the season, posting 17 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists on 54% efficiency against the Bulls. And why wouldn't he? He was given a second chance and decided to take nothing for granted. The following year was supposed to be his real opportunity, but the Sixers were stacked at his position with guys like Tobias Harris, Mathis Seibel and Josh Richardson, so Smith was relegated to the G-League. So after appearing in only 13 games across two seasons, Philly traded him to the Pistons, where he only got waived later on. Zaire was effectively out of the league at only 20 years of age. But even then, he kept grinding, spending several seasons in the G-League. Over time, his game became much more polished. He developed a solid jump shot and turned into an efficient scorer. He averaged 20 points per game for the OKC Blue team just last season on an elite shooting, 58% from the field and 45% from downtown. Heck, he even channeled his inner T-Mac on this one. He scored a career high 40 points in this one to go along with 12 rebounds in three blocks on a great 55% efficiency from the field and 3 for 4 from downtown. That's money. And speaking of that, you may be entitled to a potential recovery of over a thousand dollars. Here's why. Recently, a jury ordered Meta and YouTube to pay millions of dollars for their role in designing and promoting addictive platforms. They knew their apps can contribute to anxiety, depression and body image issues but did not share those risks while prioritizing profits. The recent history verdict underscores the consequences of those decisions. Now, Morgan & Morgan is stepping up to hold these platforms accountable for the harm they caused. Click the link in the description to take a short quiz. You may be entitled to a potential recovery of over a thousand dollars. Throughout the years, Smith was a part of a couple of summer leagues and nowadays he's rocking the Lakers uniform. And he's still that guy on defense. Against the Mavs two days ago, he picks up Ryan Nemhardt like a pitbull, strips the ball cleanly off of his hands and dives to save it from going out of bounds. That was a Marcus Smart move. Here, he picks his guy up full court, hounding him at all times. And even after the screen comes, he stays with it and gets the block at the end, absolutely shutting the guy down. Zaire is always active on both sides of the court. In four games so far for the Lakers in summer league, Smith is shooting a solid 53% from the field. And the shooting touch that was once missing from his arsenal is now a steady weapon of his. The cruel reality though is that Zaire Smith is currently playing in the shadow of young prospects like Cameron Carr, Adutiero and others. And it's very unlikely that he'll get a shot at a professional contract soon. But one thing's for certain, he'll continue to battle hard even for the slightest opportunity to step foot on an NBA court again. His story remains one of the cruelest twists of fate in league's history. But at the same time, his tenacity and determination to live up to his dream once again is legendary around basketball circles. And speaking of that, this guy is forever goaded for his long-range bombs. But in March of 2025, in back-to-back games, Steph reminded all of us that he doesn't like to be messed around either. He turned non-human when guys tried to step on his nerves. I broke down everything in this video right here, so check it out and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.