Josh Smith's personal and professional emotions have been at odds for days.

When the Hawks clinched a playoff berth for the first time in nine seasons last week, two of his lifelong dreams had been realized. There was the one he had for his city. There was also the one he had for the franchise he grew up rooting for, even when they were an afterthought to most.

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Smith often unwinds at Luckie Food Lounge just a stone's throw from where he throws down his dunks.

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Willis & Walker, co-owned by former Hawks big man Kevin Willis, has clothes in Smith's size and tastes.

Elissa Eubanks/ AJC (ENLARGE)

Fletcher's Place is like home for Josh Smith.

Elissa Eubanks/ AJC (ENLARGE)

Strip restaurant's ambience makes it Hawks forward Josh Smith's preferred location for a dinner date.

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Smith has struggled with the idea of who to be happiest for — he and his Hawks teammates, who have toiled for four long years to get to this point, or the folks he's known all his life who have had to endure the endless jokes about the Hawks and their ineptitude.

"I can't stop smiling these days and you know why," Smith said after a recent practice. "How many people get the chance to do this? How many guys get a chance to grow up and live a dream, twice?

"When we hit that floor in Boston [tonight for Game 1 of the first-round Eastern Conference playoff series] I'm playing not only for me and my family, but I'm playing for all my friends, all the people I grew up with and for the city of Atlanta. I've got to rep my city to the fullest, always."

Roots are in Atlanta

Atlanta born and bred, Smith is rare in the realm of professional sports. He's a player who gets to headline for his hometown team, along with Joe Johnson and Mike Bibby.

Smith was born in Crawford Long Hospital and raised in and around the city, from College Park to Decatur to Powder Springs. He has spent all of his 22-plus years in Atlanta — save for the nine months he did at Virginia prep school powerhouse Oak Hill Academy for his senior year of high school.

Smith has red clay in his DNA.

When he talks about home, he's not talking about the physical structure he rests in at night or where he goes when the season's over. He's talking about Atlanta, the only place he's known, the place he loves and the real people that show him that love back.

Smith's father, Walter "Pete" Smith, hears about his son's every move all over the city. He has for years, be it from schoolchildren in his neighborhood or the folks he bumps into at the cleaners or the post office.

"I was in the grocery store the other day and I had no idea Josh had been in there the day before, and a lady said she knew I must have been his daddy," the elder Smith said. "She said all the managers and workers had stopped what they were doing and came around to congratulate him on the Hawks' season, and she said he didn't budge until everybody had gotten a chance to touch him.

"Now who wouldn't want to have that kind of impact on people, to be able to lift up the spirits of people in their hometown?"

His teammates get it, too.

"You can't go anywhere in this city without somebody asking you about Josh," third-year Hawks forward Marvin Williams said. "Everybody you bump into swears they either grew up with him, are related to him or know somebody that knows him. It's crazy."

Numbers back up rise

Crazy is the only way to describe Smith's meteoric rise to stardom in the NBA. The 17th pick in the 2004 NBA draft, Smith was projected as a top-10 pick along with his friend since pre-school and AAU teammate Dwight Howard, who went No. 1 overall that year and leads Orlando into its second straight playoff series today against Toronto. However, Smith slid down many draft boards after a series of uneven draft workouts.

But four years into his career Smith stands among the league's most versatile and jaw-dropping talents, with the numbers to back it up.

This season Smith joined all-time greats David Robinson and Hakeem Olajuwon, one of his basketball tutors last summer, as the only players in league history to average 17-plus points, 8-plus rebounds, 3-plus assists, 2.8 blocks and 1.5 steals in a season.

Robinson did it twice and Olajuwon four times, but neither did it before his 27th birthday.

Smith is the first non-center to do it and is also the first NBA player to block at least 225 shots and make 25 or more 3-pointers in the same season. And he's had three straight seasons with at least 200 blocks and 25 3-pointers.

"Josh is a beast," Howard said. "He's always been able to do stuff on the floor that most people can only do on video games. He's on another level than most guys in the league already."

How that translates in the Hawks' tussle with the Celtics bears watching, with Smith set to match up on a nightly basis against a superstar like Kevin Garnett.

"Josh Smith is without doubt the X-factor in that series," said one scout for an Eastern Conference playoff team. "He's the one guy you just can't prepare for. He's too unpredictable. And since they don't really run any plays for him, it makes it that much harder to try and scheme to stop him offensively. Defensively, your guys have to know where he is at all times because he'll come out of nowhere to block shots. He's a nightmare to prepare for because you just never know what the hell he's going to do."

That's the blessing and curse with Smith, whose coaches and teammates remain stunned to this day by what he can do and what he'll try to do throughout a game.

"In all fairness to him, Josh is still a young 22-year-old kid that's learning how to win and learning how to win and learning the NBA game,"

Road to maturity

Hawks coach Mike Woodson said, "His package isn't complete yet. And that's a sign of a young man that's still growing and still trying to reach his potential. But there's no question in my mind that a lot of our success has been because of Josh Smith's endurance and his unique ability to do some things that, quite frankly, very few guys in this league can do."

That's high praise from a man Smith has had run-ins with over the course of their four-year coach-player relationship.

But much like his game, that relationship has matured over time. Smith has played at a consistently high level for so long now — his shot selection (.253 from 3-point range) is the only real sticking point he and Woodson battle about these days — that it's become increasingly more difficult to nitpick his game the way you could when he was an 18-year-old rookie.

"I've grown up over these past few years," Smith said. "I've still got plenty of things to work on where my game is concerned. But I'm going to bring everything I've got to that floor every night. My team is going to get whatever they need from me to help us win. I don't care what it takes."

He had single-game highs this season of 38 points, 22 rebounds, 10 assists, nine blocks and five steals. Johnson is the only Hawks player to have a better scoring night (39), and no one had a better night rebounding or blocking shots.

"When he's focused and on his game, he's impossible to deal with," Johnson said. "And that's who we need him to be in this series with Boston. We need him at his energetic best, flying all over the floor and making plays."

The Hawks also need him on his game on the offensive end as well. Smith has to be a scoring threat to keep Garnett and the Celtics' top-flight defense from focusing solely on shutting down Johnson and Bibby.

So Smith has to not only be shrewd in his selection but also effective in how he works from the perimeter, much like he was in a crucial April 2 win over Toronto.

Smith made all three of his 3-point attempts that night, including two from the right wing in overtime, in a crucial 127-120 win that helped seal the Hawks' 35th win of the season.

Three days later, the Hawks put playoff tickets on sale.

"We were in Philadelphia that day [winning another critical game on the path to the playoffs], but I knew what was going on back home," Smith said. "My daddy called me that morning and we kind of laughed about how much things had changed and how sweet it is to be a part of it all. If you're from Atlanta, lived here all your life like I have, it just doesn't get much better than this."