The biggest name in minor-league basketball is ironed onto the back of a St. Louis Swarm uniform in bland, black characters. That's right, ironed on.

	Leon Smith had been working on returning to the NBA.

Fancier lettering can be found on the front of Leon Smith's personally monogrammed Bible.

It's not just the jerseys, either. Empty arenas, high-school referees, modest wages -- it's all glamourless in the International Basketball League. Aside from riverboat gamblers, no one dreams of playing in St. Charles, along the banks of the Missouri.

Then again, it's better than not playing, which is why Smith likes the look and fit of his Swarm purple and gold. He's a long way from the Lakers or the Mavericks or even his horri-bull hometown Bulls, but at least he's back on the court. One year removed from one of the saddest spirals the sport has ever witnessed, Smith is back in position for someone to take another gamble on him.

"I understand the game a little better," Smith said. "I can't dwell on [the past] anymore. ... It depends on how you describe happy, but at the same time I'm pretty satisfied with what I'm doing. I'm trying to move to the next level."

More than likely, he will eventually. It's a fairly safe bet, for a gambling man or not, that Smith will someday get a second NBA opportunity, even after his suicide attempt and his two Chicago arrests and his monthlong stay in a Dallas psychiatric ward.

Smith, remember, is still 6-10. He's still just 20 years old. He still has a 7-7 wingspan and still oozes rebounding and passing instincts that few men or man-children his size possess. The Miami Heat had a scout at his first game for the Swarm, to watch Smith snare 11 boards in 28 minutes while tossing in two touch passes in the low post that Arvydas Sabonis or Vlade Divac would have happily claimed.

For those kinds of skills, scouts will look past the rough edges. The lack of touch or know-how Smith displays with his back to the basket, even against smaller defenders. The lack of intensity at times, a penchant for leaking out on the break when he should be dominating the glass. Those are areas where he can improve. Can't learn athletic ability, which Smith has in abundance. More scouts will surely follow Miami to St. Charles if Smith can stay out of trouble -- and what they'll see is a Chicago kid who rarely establishes position, yet gets to lots of rebounds first.

"He has instincts you can't teach," said Swarm coach Bernie Bickerstaff, a veteran of NBA benches for almost 30 years. "People have a tendency to forget what you've done if you can help them."

In the NBA, that's especially true. Bickerstaff's point is supported by the stories of Derrick Coleman, Vernon Maxwell and Isaiah Rider, each of whom remains gainfully employed. Those guys, along with troublemaking champion Dennis Rodman, were all afforded second, third and fourth chances. Smith is just starting on chance No. 2. Smith had 7 points and 11 rebounds in his 28-minute debut and 8 points and 6 rebounds in 17 minutes Thursday night for the 2-1 Swarm.

It isn't the smoothest start, mind you, because Smith has launched his comeback amid a new round of legal troubles. Chicago police recently re-issued a September warrant for Smith's arrest, after he failed to appear at a mandatory Dec. 6 court hearing. Smith, according to Cook County public information officer Gale Paradise, has been charged with failing to comply with terms of his 18-month probation -- the byproduct of misdemeanor assaults last December against girlfriend Cappie Pondexter and a car registered to Pondexter's mother.

	“	I understand the game a little better. I can't dwell on [the past] anymore. ... It depends on how you describe happy, but at the same time I'm pretty satisfied with what I'm doing. I'm trying to move to the next level. ”
		— Leon Smith

Foremost among those probation terms was the stipulation that Smith needed permission from a Cook County court to leave Chicago and sign with the Swarm. Smith allegedly didn't get that clearance before agreeing to a one-year contract worth an estimated $40,000. "Is he taking a risk by not taking care of this?" Paradise said. "Yes, he is."

NBA teams are nonetheless watching Smith again, even though it's unclear how the arrest warrant will affect his comeback. A worse-than-ever shortage of quality big men in the game almost forces personnel people to monitor Smith, despite the fact he'll almost certainly have to return to court eventually to resolve his status, either after turning himself in or by arrest.

"He's a good young player," said Heat coach Pat Riley, confirming to Miami reporters that Smith is in his sights. "Obviously some of the issues were rather blatant. But by this time, everybody thinks he may have worked out those issues."

The tale Riley alludes to is pretty unforgettable. Smith, estranged from his parents from the age of 5, dribbled from group home to group home in the Windy City until the Mavericks arranged a draft-day trade with San Antonio on June 30, 1999, to snag Smith with the last pick in the first round.

Dallas wanted the raw power forward to spend a year in Europe learning the pro game. Smith balked, so the Mavericks secured unprecedented approval from the league office to send him to St. Louis for much of the 1999-2000 season, with Smith receiving his full rookie-year salary of $450,000 as long as he was recalled to the Mavericks by April 19.

Smith ultimately rejected that plan as well, and, along the way, fired both agents -- Dan Fegan and Matt Muehlebach -- who agreed with the Mavericks' contention that he needed more seasoning before graduating to an NBA environment. Smith reported to Dallas on opening night, clashed repeatedly with the coaching staff, wound up isolated from the team because of the disruptions and endured a break-up with Pondexter in the midst of all the troubles at work. On Nov. 14, 1999, Smith ingested 250 aspirin.

Smith survived, but there would be more chaos. Within a few weeks, he was arrested twice in a 24-hour span for incidents involving the Pondexters. After finally consenting to psychiatric care, at the behest of the NBA Players Association, Smith received a $1.2 million buyout from the Mavericks in February, to be paid over a 10-year span. Smith spent part of the spring under Players Association supervision in Houston before breaking ties with the union and returning to Chicago. On May 16, he was sentenced to 18 months' probation and ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution. Paradise said Smith is also required to pay $25 in monthly probation fees, submit to weekly counseling sessions, check in when specified by his probation officer and abide by a two-year order of protection secured by the Pondexters.

Bickerstaff finally convinced Smith to come to St. Louis after tryouts with New Jersey, Houston and Milwaukee failed to net a big-league job. Bickerstaff has the NBA experience and a tough-love approach that seems to have reached Smith, mainly by emphasizing the positive. Which means no discussion about the past. Bickerstaff prefers instead to compare Smith with another man-child he once coached in Seattle, a prodigy named Shawn Kemp.

"Shawn just seemed to be a little more focused [in 1989]," Bickerstaff said. As for Smith's reluctance to play in St. Louis last season, Bickerstaff added: "He wanted to play basketball in the NBA. Like a lot of kids, they don't have the ability to evaluate what's most beneficial to them. The point is, he's here now."

	Howard

	Kemp

Indeed he is, living alone in a St. Charles apartment with his Mavericks money managed by Merrill Lynch. Smith is playing competitive hoops for the first time since a brief summer-league stint with the Mavs in July 1999, unless you count some Chicago Pro/Am games this past summer with Juwan Howard and Antoine Walker. With the Swarm, Smith is playing alongside another power forward drafted by the Mavericks who didn't pan out, reigning IBL MVP Doug Smith.

Leon is wearing a snug headband during games and keeping his shoelaces untied during warmups. He also doesn't seem to mind that the gold lettering on his Bible is snazzier than the ironed-on L. SMITH above his No. 44.

Maybe that's because Smith remembers where he was last holiday season, just one December ago. "I spent Christmas and New Year's in the hospital," Smith recalled of his psychiatric confinement. "I watched fireworks on New Year's Eve from my window."

Or maybe it's because the former ward of the state of Illinois finally has a family structure in his tumultuous, mostly parent-less life. The name of Smith's new home court in St. Charles, believe it or not, is Family Arena.

"It's been a ride, man, but I've still got a ways to go," Smith said. "If you asked me when I was 15 if I'd see 20, I would have probably said no. But I'm here. I'm still here."

Marc Stein, who covers the NBA for The Dallas Morning News, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com.