Longtime NBA reporter and television analyst Sekou Smith died Tuesday after a battle with COVID-19. He was only 48 years old. He was a graduate of Jackson State University that would go on to work for the Clarion Ledger in Jackson before becoming the beat writer for Indiana Pacers with the Indianapolis Star. He then covered the Atlanta Hawks for the Atlanta Journal Constitution before joining Turner Sports in 2009 as an NBA analyst and writer for NBA.com. He also created and hosted the “Hang Time” Podcast.
Most importantly, Sekou was one the most genuine people I’ve ever met.
Everything you’re seeing on television and on social media about him being an exceptional human being is 10,000% correct. He was big time but never played you like he was big time. He was the most authentic cat in the building at all times.
When I started TheJayGravesReport back in 2010. I knew absolutely nothing about journalism and was looking to learn as much as I could from people that did this for a living. I started following journalists on social media both locally and nationally to learn from them. I saw Sekou on Twitter and followed him. Either in his bio or maybe he’d mentioned being a graduate of Jackson State University, I can’t remember, but that was the connection.
My wife is a graduate of JSU and I asked her if she knew this cat named Sekou. Turns out they’d gone to school together. I immediately reached out, introduced myself to him and told him who my wife was. I didn’t know him when he was the beat writer for the Indianapolis Star covering the Pacers years before because I wasn’t paying attention to that aspect of the business then. I watched the games like everyone else and turned it off.
It didn’t take 5 minutes for Sekou to answer and follow me back. I hit him with a DM and gave him my number. He called, we talked about getting started in the business as he gave me sound advice. He became my mentor and longtime friend. I’ve been covering the Pacers since 2010 but he was the one that told me to cover high school sports too.
He said that high school sports is where all of the local eyeballs are. Don’t try to compete with the big boxes. Cut your teeth with high school sports even though you’re covering the NBA as well.
This big time NBA writer was giving me solid advice on how to get better at something that I knew nothing about. My area of expertise was in sales and marketing, not journalism.
I remembered being blessed to co-host a sports radio show on Saturday mornings for a brief period of time here in Indy. We were looking for guests for the show one week and I called Sekou hoping he would say yes. He didn’t hesitate to agree to holler at us. He didn’t have to do it but he did because he saw a brother trying to get into the business. He was all hands on deck to teach me what I wanted to learn.
Our kids eventually went to Jackson State together so you already know that the homecoming trips were legendary. When my wife and I would go to Atlanta our families would eat at his favorite jerk chicken spot. Talk about some excellent food. He didn’t tell me to meet him at some overpriced high class joint that people go to when they’re showing out. Naw he kept it 100!!! Let’s get some jerk bruh.
Again, I know that he was big time in the business of sports journalism but he never played anyone big time. He had a heart of gold and a personality to match. He was one of the good ones in life that you meet and cherish getting to know them. God allowed everyone that had a chance to know him to know an angel. He only gave him to us for a short period of time and now he’s gone back to be with the Lord. Thank you Jesus for blessing us with Sekou Smith. I’ll continue to pray for his lovely wife, Heather, and his three children, Gabriel, Rielly and Cameron as well as his dad and siblings. He will truly be missed.