Dishin & Swishin Podcast: Katie Smith on the Olympics, Liberty & more

Katie Smith has just about done it all.

WNBA champion, over 7,000 points scored as a professional, three-time Olympic gold medalist, a member of the USA basketball selection committee, and now an assistant coach for the New York Liberty, one of the best teams in the WNBA.

With that resume, it made perfect sense to welcome Katie Smith back to the Dishin & Swishin podcast during the Olympic games and WNBA break to talk about all of these things and more.

The Liberty sit comfortably in third place overall, on top of the Eastern Conference, with an 18-8 record. They have a legitimate MVP candidate in Tina Charles, and a mix of veterans and youth that give them the energy and the guile to be a legit force come playoff time.

Smith was a member of the 2000, 2004 and 2008 Olympic gold medal winning teams. She played with the "old guard" including Teresa Edwards, Ruthie Bolton, and Dawn Staley, and current Olympians Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and Tamika Catchings. As she points out on the podcast, this gives her the somewhat unique ability to look at those teams and the current USA team and consider their places in history.

So is 2016 the greatest Olympic team ever, as some have suggested? Well, you will have to listen to find out Smith's response, but suffice to say the defense from those earlier teams, with Lisa Leslie, Yolanda Griffith, Sheryl Swoopes, Nikki McCray, Edwards and more is pretty darn impressive and tough to compete with.

Other topics covered include:

• The Liberty season to date, dealing with the break and the second half
• The new playoff format's impact on the second part of the season
• Tina Charles' season, getting her back into the fold after the Olympics, and getting proper rest after those extra games
• Her own experience coming back from playing in the Olympics and then returning to the WNBA
• Her feelings on playing for USA Basketball and being a part of those gold med