“The older you get, the longer your jump shot becomes.”
― Kenny Smith
“Guys pay extra attention to detail. They are looking at every little thing on the scouting report.”
― Kenny Smith
“I want people to know that it’s all right to come back to New Orleans. You can drink the water. The only way that the city can come back is if you come back. Tourism is a big part of it.”
― Kenny Smith
“Mike Brown wasn’t about race relations, nor Trayvon Martin or even Hurricane Katrina for that matter. It’s about trust.”
― Kenny Smith
“I like to dribble to Queen’s ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’”
― Kenny Smith
“There are people who will take shortcuts, and if you decide to take a shortcut, it usually backfires, so I’m proud to say I’m not a shortcut taker.”
― Kenny Smith
“NCAA is looking at how to do a better job enforcing their rules instead of looking at why the predatorial environment is created. There’s a predatorial environment that their rules have created, which makes people feel undervalued.”
― Kenny Smith
“You can have your own thought process about things, but you still need to include and co-exist with other people.”
― Kenny Smith
“Mike D’Antoni is a great offensive mind. He’s a great coach.”
― Kenny Smith
“If you practice anything enough, you can be consistent.”
― Kenny Smith
“We win together as a team, and we lose together as a team.”
― Kenny Smith
“The Warriors are competition, and competition makes the best of us.”
― Kenny Smith
“If LeBron James is playing in Las Vegas, the arena would be sold out, and it would be rocking. If LeBron James is playing for Las Vegas, it would be beyond sold out.”
― Kenny Smith
“The 18 years on TNT has prepared me for a lot of opportunities, and coaching is one of them.”
― Kenny Smith
“Coaching is definitely on the aspiration list.”
― Kenny Smith
“There’s no representation. That’s why the NBA Players Association was formed, players’ unions were formed. That’s why those unions were formed – to have representation before you make rules for me that I have to abide by. How can I participate and how can it be fair if there’s no representation?”
― Kenny Smith
“As African Americans, we always have to fight for inclusion, despite your moral background: Christian, Muslim, Jewish – it doesn’t matter.”
― Kenny Smith
“I think, for me, one of the things I’ve been blessed with is the ability to speak with clarity.”
― Kenny Smith
“When you play, you get an opportunity to hone your craft.”
― Kenny Smith
“If you put 100 people on an island with no food, no water, no hope of a ship coming, then some will overcome it and be resourceful, some will live in it, others will panic, and others will show horrific character, which is wrong. But not to understand that all alternatives are possible is wrong as well.”
― Kenny Smith
“I started playing basketball when I was 6 or 7. I wasn’t strong enough to shoot the correct way, so I just used two hands. As I got older, I just kept shooting that way.”
― Kenny Smith
“My high school coach used to tell me there’s no correct way to shoot, that the only correct way was to get the ball into the basket.”
― Kenny Smith
“You don’t get the accolades unless you win. It took me a while to understand. No one will remember how Kenny Smith played in Game 1 unless we win the series. The thrill is in winning.”
― Kenny Smith
“From the outside looking in, I would say the franchise that has had the most stories that are unrelated to basketball are the Knicks.”
― Kenny Smith
“In Texas, it’s football. In Georgia, football. There’s an appreciation from the average person about football more than anywhere else. And we have that for basketball in New York. And we’ll always have that in New York.”
― Kenny Smith
“I always thought it’s not that the greatest players in the world come from New York. It’s just the guys who shouldn’t have made it, they came from New York. That’s what makes New York special.”
― Kenny Smith
“Mark Jackson played 19, 20 years in the NBA. Shouldn’t even have probably been in the league, and he’s the third-ranked assist guy in the NBA. But you describe his game: Can he jump? No, not really. How’s his outside shot? Eh, it’s inconsistent. Can he defend? Nah, he can’t stay in front of guys. And he played 19 years!”
― Kenny Smith
“We all want to let fans behind the scenes. We just don’t want them following us around.”
― Kenny Smith
“Image overshadows reality in our league, and there are people who get to believe they are better than they really are.”
― Kenny Smith
“This league has great players, and it has great images. Sometimes those two things get confused.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’m not a boxer, I’m a basketball player.”
― Kenny Smith
“I don’t know about bullying and all of that stuff. That doesn’t work in basketball.”
― Kenny Smith
“By the time I turned 16, I’d played more than 300 games outside high school.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’ve played more park games than NBA games, and I had a 10-year NBA career.”
― Kenny Smith
“Dunk, and people anywhere will ooh and aah. But you can wow a crowd in New York with ball handling and passing.”
― Kenny Smith
“You make decisions just crossing the street.”
― Kenny Smith
“Great players, they start becoming immune to what the defense does to them.”
― Kenny Smith
“What made it so special was the city of Houston had never won a sports championship. I think the championship changed people’s thinking about their own city. It made them feel like their city had some significance that it hadn’t had before.”
― Kenny Smith
“Any guard would love playing with a great big man, one who rebounds, blocks shots, and scores.”
― Kenny Smith
“My situation in Houston is like night and day compared to Atlanta. This system fits my game, and the team has confidence in me to get the job done.”
― Kenny Smith
“You do the job you have to do where you have to do it.”
― Kenny Smith
“Timing is everything in this league, and I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. But I never lost my confidence. Atlanta was changing coaches and systems. I knew they’d make personnel changes.”
― Kenny Smith
“I think it is inevitable that I’ll be coaching or be a GM.”
― Kenny Smith
“It’s difficult to see my daughters on television and in music videos, and then I get tweets or comments about crushes and, ‘Hey can I date? And hey, I’d be a good son-in-law type.’”
― Kenny Smith
“I was overwhelmed meeting him. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know whether to call him ‘Coach Russell,’ ‘Bill,’ or ‘Mr. Russell.’”
― Kenny Smith
“Something that my teammates always thought was going to be a punishment for me – sitting next to Coach Russell on the team bus – actually turned out to be the best moment of my life.”
― Kenny Smith
“One thing is a pro is supposed to make certain plays, while a college player is learning to make plays.”
― Kenny Smith
“One thing about being a great ball handler is not looking at the basketball.”
― Kenny Smith
“You can dribble on carpet. I grew up in Queens, and we had carpet in our living room. And actually, even in some of these gymnasiums where we’re playing the game, we’re on carpet. If you’re 12 or 13 years old, you’ve dribbled on the carpet in your mom’s house.”
― Kenny Smith
“Games like ‘Call of Duty’ and ‘NBA Baller Beats’ have so much to them. I was more of the ‘Pac-Man’ generation where we were excited to play table tennis on the TV.”
― Kenny Smith
“When someone is in ‘the struggle,’ which many of our black communities are in, they are living with a lack of educational facilities, high unemployment, and poor recreational facilities.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’m blessed that I’m able to provide the vehicle for my daughter to follow her dreams.”
― Kenny Smith
“There are a lot more famous fathers out there than me with daughters who wouldn’t mind singing careers… but the talent and the work ethic have to be on point. Kayla’s blessed to have all that.”
― Kenny Smith
“The one thing about college basketball is you don’t have to have the best player to win.”
― Kenny Smith
“A few years, there are teams that are just dominant over everyone. Those years are few and far.”
― Kenny Smith
“You like to be part of a championship, but you always want to be an integral part.”
― Kenny Smith
“I shoot too many shots in the summer to worry about my shooting.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’m not from New Orleans, never knew anything about New Orleans.”
― Kenny Smith
“You really don’t believe that winning at home or winning on the road makes a difference. The Lakers have that mind-set. They don’t look at it as ‘We’re at home, we’re on the road.’”
― Kenny Smith
“What it takes to win on the road, it’s all mental focus. You have to believe that you can win.”
― Kenny Smith
“If I’ve surprised others, I haven’t surprised myself with the way I’ve played.”
― Kenny Smith
“The important thing is to be around people who will make you a better player. Otherwise, you can remain average.”
― Kenny Smith
“That’s all my brother and I do, talk basketball, and I’d like to think I bring some of that casual quality with me on the air.”
― Kenny Smith
“The expectation levels aren’t as high because a team is expected to win on its home court. That takes a little of the pressure off us on the road.”
― Kenny Smith
“In our league, 20 points in the first half isn’t anything.”
― Kenny Smith
“When you’re in the slam dunk contest, you try to do the things the average person would have trouble doing on a Nerf basket.”
― Kenny Smith
“Phil Jackson is a mastermind, and he knows how to keep his team from being complacent.”
― Kenny Smith
“For me to stay in basketball, it would just have to be a veteran team.”
― Kenny Smith
“If you look at the NBA, it’s the richest and wealthiest group of African-American men in the world.”
― Kenny Smith
“I think it’s right not to ‘give’ but to create opportunities and invest a percentage into those communities that you come from.”
― Kenny Smith
“The Rockets have a philosophy of what they think their coach should be.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’m always the neutral guy, man. I’m able to bring people together.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’ve been an NBA player, and a black man, for a long time, and I know how to take a loss.”
― Kenny Smith
“I’ve been winning my whole life. I’ve been blessed to be a winner.”
― Kenny Smith
“When the Sacramento Kings, when I was there, we win 29-30 games – that was a successful season. And it would be packed from start to finish. You couldn’t get a seat.”
― Kenny Smith
“There’s hasn’t been a day in my life since I was 9 years old that I haven’t touched a basketball or done something connected with basketball.”
― Kenny Smith
“I remember when I was 11 playing against guys who were as old as 22. I just stayed outside and shot from there.”
― Kenny Smith
“When you’re from New York, people take a second look at you. In Virginia, the other players always asked about the fast life we live. They want to know about the crime. As a player, they expect you to be able to do things that excite a crowd. And they always want to beat you. You’re the New Yorker.”
― Kenny Smith
“I want to study law.”
― Kenny Smith
“It’s not always the result. It’s the journey to get to the result.”
― Kenny Smith
“I don’t think the Lakers could control Tony Parker’s ability to get into the paint, so his health is the key for San Antonio.”
― Kenny Smith
“Basketball is me.”
― Kenny Smith
“I think that for me, as a UNC graduate, I value my education – I think everyone who’s gone to that university values education.”
― Kenny Smith
“The one thing in most communities, the staple is the basketball court. And when that looks good, I think the community feels good about itself, knowing that people care and have an opportunity to not only play there, but it’s also a social meeting place.”
― Kenny Smith
“My mother and father didn’t treat my brothers and sisters the same, so to treat 12 players exactly the same, that’s a great accomplishment.”
― Kenny Smith
“I make people pay their debts.”
― Kenny Smith
“Kobe Bryant should know how to defend a pick and roll.”
― Kenny Smith
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