"I want to play," Smith told Houston television station KRIV on Thursday. "I'm really ready to take on responsibility now."

	Leon Smith is shown here in action last year for his high school team.

Smith, 19, has lived in Houston for several weeks under the watchful eye of Purvis Short, a former NBA player who is now director of player programs for the players union.

However, if Smith does return to the NBA, it won't be with the Mavericks. Team president Terdema Ussery told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Thursday night that he and union chief Billy Hunter have reached an agreement in principle to make Smith a free agent.

The details of the deal were not immediately available. The Mavericks had proposed paying off Smith's three-year, $1.45 million contract over the next 10 years, with a final agreement set to be announced next week, according to the Star-Telegram.

San Antonio made the 6-foot-10, 235-pound forward the final pick in the first round, then traded him to Dallas. Squabbling started soon afterward.

The Mavericks wanted Smith to start in a developmental league, but he refused and later forced them to sign him on opening day. His troubles erupted less than two weeks later.

On Nov. 14, Smith threw a rock through a car window and swallowed about 250 aspirin. He said he was trying to kill himself because of problems with his girlfriend in Chicago.

"The truth is, I was trying to end my life," Smith said. "I was trying to get rid of the pain. That was the only way I knew how to do it.

"There are plenty of ways to commit suicide, but I thought that would be the least painful because I was already in pain from the inside. There was no need to have it from the outside."

Smith wasn't sure what to think when he awoke in a hospital.

"Part of me was like, 'I should have died, I should have gone, I don't belong here,' and part of me was like, 'Well, God gave you another chance, so make the best of it,' " he said.

But he didn't. Smith returned to Chicago in early December and got into trouble with police.

He was charged with threatening the ex-girlfriend with a gun, then got out of jail and reportedly rammed a car belonging to the ex-girlfriend's mother and smashed all the windows. He faces a Feb. 3 court date for two counts of criminal damage.

"I'm not afraid to admit I was in love, and that added on to a lot of things that were going on," he said. "It drove me crazy. It got the anger to start building up inside of me."

The NBA players association stepped in shortly after and placed Smith in psychiatric care.

"I belonged there because I needed to find myself," he said. "I didn't want to hurt anybody or me."

The Mavericks suspended Smith indefinitely in December.

Critics have accused the team of doing too little to ease the transition into the NBA for Smith, who was raised as a ward of Illinois after being estranged from his parents at age 5.

Smith said he's not angry with the Mavericks.

"I don't think they handled certain situations right," he said, "but I don't blame them because I couldn't handle myself back then."

Smith said he still has love for the city of Dallas and that he would consider playing for the Mavericks because "that's the team that traded for me."

"I've sinned a lot and I'm struggling every day to get better," Smith said. "I want to be able to just play ball and really get away from all the other stuff."