Kenny Smith: ‘I can disagree with Charles Barkley and still love him’

I n his rookie year on the Sacramento Kings during the late 1980s, Kenny Smith experienced a frightening moment that had nothing to do with basketball. He was getting a ride home from his coach, when their car was pulled over. Raised in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Queens, New York, Smith had a wary view of the police. He worried about the traffic stop of two Black men by a white officer. In the end, nothing happened, thanks to the unflappability of his coach – Hall of Famer Bill Russell, who told the cop he could give a ticket or a lecture, but not both. The officer recognized the 11-time NBA champion and let him go on his way.

“It was the first time, as an African American young man, that I had seen someone question authority that fast, that deliberate,” says Smith.

Russell, who died last year, left a lasting impression on the rookie. Smith went on to become a two-time NBA champion with the Houston Rockets and an acclaimed analyst on the Emmy-winning TNT show Inside the NBA. Now Smith is sharing reflections on the many role models he’s had in a new book, Talk of Champions: Stories of the People Who Made Me.

“I wish I knew all this at [age] 20,” Smith says, “all this different information. I’m trying to give it out. I really didn’t know, I didn’t realize at the time, the amount of people in my life who were so influential around the world. I thought this was normal.”

Collectively, he calls them “great people who did great things in their fields.”

Smith played high school basketball under standout coach Jack Curran at one of New York City’s premier programs, Archbishop Molloy. He went on to the University of North Carolina, where he was mentored by the legendary Dean Smith. His Tar Heels teammate was none