His wife, Samantha, has been blogging and tweeting messages about his battle with non-Hodgkin lymphoma over the last two years. He was just 25 years old.
His wife, Samantha, confirmed the news on Twitter Tuesday.
Stevens said he expects to return to Indianapolis to be part of the memorial services for Smith and expressed appreciation with the Celtics for giving him the flexibility to make these trips back home.
Smith helped take the Bulldogs to back to back national championship games, where the 6'11 rebounding star was instrumental to bringing Butler to its first ever Final Four appearance.
Smith briefly played professional basketball in Lithuania, but health concerns became a factor only a couple of months into his professional career. Smith had a bone marrow transplant in November and on December 7, Samantha Smith wrote that the transplant had failed and the lymphoma had turned into leukemia. Biking while simultaneously getting pumped w/ most intense chemo out there.
'The doctors tell me death is imminent and that Andrew is going to die from this disease. There are no treatments, no clinical trials.there is nothing left to do.
As his conditioned worsened, his former Butler coach Brad Stevens missed a game last week to be with him.
Smith was a freshman reserve on the 2010 team that reached the national title game. Stevens was in contact with him the most out of everyone aside from his family. "I was happy that I got a chance to say goodbye," Stevens said. "I'm glad I went".
"He was special – caring, fun, smart and the toughest person I knew. Set a great example", Stevens added. Butler also released a statement.
The statement reads: 'The Butler community is profoundly sad today with the news of Andrew's passing. "In both cases, we saw the best of Andrew Smith". He fought valiantly. As in all aspects of his life, Andrew gave his all, all the time.
In addition to his on-court accomplishments, Smith was an academic All-American and won a Senior CLASS Award for his work in the classroom.
Source: Former Butler star Andrew Smith dies after battling cancer
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