The North Carolina A&T alum started from the bottom on his way to becoming GM of the Detroit Lions. Now his team is one win away from its first Super Bowl.
NBA reporter and analyst Sekou Smith dies at 48 due to COVID-19
play
Rachel Nichols gives moving tribute to Sekou Smith (2:51)
Rachel Nichols gets emotional while remembering the life of NBA reporter and analyst Sekou Smith, who died Tuesday of COVID-19. (2:51)
Sekou Smith, a longtime NBA reporter and television analyst, died Tuesday after a battle with COVID-19. He was 48.
A native of Grand Rapids, Michigan, Smith went to college at Jackson State in Mississippi, before starting his career at the Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. He went on to become a fixture in the NBA universe first as a beat writer covering the Indiana Pacers for the Indianapolis Star and the Atlanta Hawks for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, before joining Turner Sports in 2009.
Sekou Smith, Award-Winning N.B.A. Reporter and Analyst, Dies at 48
Mr. Smith, the creator and host of NBA.com’s “Hang Time” blog and podcast, covered professional basketball for more than two decades. He died of complications of Covid-19.
Sekou Smith, a reporter for NBA TV and NBA.com, had a long career covering basketball.Credit.Turner Sports
Jan. 28, 2021
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others
.
For much of his journalism career, you would never see Sekou Smith in a sport coat. Not at the N.B.A. games he covered, not in the newsroom.