The Atlanta Hawks selected Stanford junior Josh Childress with the sixth overall pick, and Atlanta-area native and high school star Josh Smith 17th overall in the 2004 NBA Draft, held Thursday night in New York City. Atlanta subsequently drafted Donta Smith from Southeastern Illinois College (34th), Texas’ Royal Ivey (37th) and Viktor Sanikidze (42nd) with their second-round choices.
“We're very pleased and excited to have Josh Childress,” said Hawks General Manager Billy Knight. “We think he’ll be a good part of our foundation, a good part of our future. He adds to the athleticism of our team, the energy of our team, the perimeter shooting and the ball-handling of our team. He’ll help us on and off the court.”
“I’m so glad that I’m in Atlanta,” Childress said. “It’s a great city. The organization is really on a track to win and be successful, and it’s going to happen. We’re going to turn things around there, and make Atlanta the place to be. I can’t tell you how excited I was when the cameras came towards me.”
The first-ever Stanford player named Pac-10 Player of the Year, Childress also earned First Team All-America honors by the Associated Press, Sports Illustrated, Basketball Times, NABC and FoxSports.com. In 2003-04, Childress averaged 15.7 points, 7.5 rebounds (fifth in the conference), and led the Cardinal (ranking third in the Pac-10) in blocked shots. He scored in double figures in 22 of 23 games, and was named MVP of the Pac-10 Tournament, helping lead Stanford to an outstanding 30-2 mark.
“Josh Smith is a young player who we think has huge potential,” Knight said. “That will require us to work with him, and we think he’s a willing pupil. We think he has things that you can’t teach – the naturally athletic body, he’s long and rangy, he plays above the rim, and we have to work on the skill sets that he needs. He’s been so good up to this point with just athleticism.”
“This is very exciting to me,” Smith said. “I’m looking forward to playing back at home in front of the crowd. I feel I have the ability and the talent to play with these guys, but I need to work on some things. I will play hard every second I’m on the court this season, and do what I have to do to improve.”
Josh Smith played this past season at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia (averaging 25.8 points, 7.4 rebounds, 6.0 blocks and 3.0 steals), and helped lead Oak Hill to a 38-0 mark and a No. 1 national ranking. He attended McEachern High School in Powder Springs for three years before transferring. Smith is a 2004 McDonald’s All-American, a PARADE Magazine All-America team member, and was named to the 2004 USA Men’s Junior National Select Team. He was a two-time First Team All-State selection at McEachern, and was named MVP of the Adidas ABCD Camp in the summer of 2003. He originally committed to play at Indiana University.
Donta Smith, the third-leading scorer in the junior college ranks, earned NJCAA All-American First Team honors and was named conference, district and region Player of the Year as a sophomore. He averaged 25.8 points, 7.1 rebounds and 3.4 assists and finished his career at Southeastern Illinois College as the school’s all-time leading scorer (1,433). Smith committed to Louisville before making the decision to turn professional.
“Donta is another wing player,” Knight said. “He’s a skilled guy with the ball. He does a lot of things off the dribble and is a good athlete.”
Ivey, a 6-3 shooting guard and defensive specialist from Queens, NY, was the captain of the Longhorns and ended his collegiate career with 1,036 points, 406 rebounds and 300 assists, averaging 9.4 ppg, 4.3 apg and 4.0 rpg in 33 games this past season. He was named to the media’s All-Big 12 third team. He helped lead Texas to four consecutive NCAA Tournaments during his career, including three straight “Sweet 16” appearances, and a Final Four berth in 2003.
“Royal Ivey is a big point guard who can defend,” Knight said. “He’s equated in a lot of ways to an Eric Snow-type of point guard. He has toughness and some size.”
Sanikidze, a native of the Republic of Georgia, attended college in the United States at just 15 years of age, playing a season for Globe Tech Junior College in New York 2001-02. He returned home, where he spent the 2002-03 season with the amateur basketball club Academy Tbilisi. This past season, he averaged 1.9 points and 1.8 rebound in 5.8 minutes in French Pro A with Dijon.
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