Longtime NBA writer Sekou Smith, known for his basketball insight and friendly demeanor, died Tuesday of COVID-19. Smith was a graduate of Jackson State University and worked at The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson. He was 48 years old.
Smith began covering the NBA and the Indiana Pacers in 2001 for The Indianapolis Star and moved south to cover the Atlanta Hawks for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 2005-2009. Turner Sports hired him in 2009, and he wrote about the league for NBA.com and provided analysis on NBA TV.
“The NBA mourns the passing of Sekou Smith, a beloved member of the NBA family,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said a in statement. “Sekou was one of the most affable and dedicated reporters in the NBA and a terrific friend to so many across the league. He covered the game for more than two decades, including the past 11 years with Turner Sports, where he showed his full range of skills as an engaging television analyst, podcast host and writer.
OXFORD â When Curtis Wilkie left Mississippi for the East Coast in 1969, he did it with a promise that he would never return. Half a century later, the University of Mississippi journalism professor is putting a period on his career in the same place where it began: Oxford.
The Summit native and Ole Miss alumnus reported on and wrote about a range of characters from racists and murderers to United States presidents and Middle Eastern revolutionaries. Yet through a career that led him from the Mississippi Delta to the White House, Wilkie never failed to seek out the humanity in each of his sources.
OXFORD â When Corinth native Curtis Wilkie left Mississippi for the East Coast in 1969, he did it with a promise that he would never return.
Half a century later, the University of Mississippi journalism professor and 1958 Corinth High School graduate is putting a period on his career in the same place where it began: Oxford.
The Ole Miss alumnus (BA 63) reported on and wrote about a range of characters from racists and murderers to United States presidents and Middle Eastern revolutionaries. Yet through a career that led him from the Mississippi Delta to the White House, Wilkie never failed to seek out the humanity in each of his sources.