Kenny “The Jet” Smith plays an integral role on TNT’s Inside the NBA.
The former point guard played a decade in the league and won back-to-back titles with the Houston Rockets. Smith, however, has arguably become even more recognizable for his time on television alongside Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Ernie Johnson.
Smith has become a beloved figure in the basketball world and we can always expect some brotherly goofiness — like decking Shaq into a Christmas tree or getting his chair booby-trapped so he doesn’t win a race — whenever he is on the screen. Even though Inside The NBA can get silly, they also have incredibly thoughtful coverage.
For The Win recently caught up with Smith, who published a memoir called Talk of Champions earlier this year. Here are some of his most fascinating insights.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
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What is something about your 'Inside The NBA' crew people don’t realize?
Smith: We’re gym rats. We’re film junkies. We love watching the game. We love being in a gym. Shaq goes to AAU games. I have a program in the Nike EYBL game called The Jet Academy, and it starts next year. We’ve got all the way from middle school to high school. That is an underrated characteristic of why we are so good at our show. We understand basketball at all levels. You’ll see me at a middle school game and then the NBA All-Star Game. That’s underrated, and it gets missed a lot.
What are your goals with The Jet Academy in the EYBL?
Smith: I’m trying to teach life skills through basketball: Teamwork, listening to authority as part of a team, coming early, staying late — those are the qualities that most CEOs of companies do not even have. You can take those qualities and become whomever you want to be because those are the qualities that will set you up for life. If you ask most major companies, they are looking for people with those qualities that you just learned at eight years old. You will already possess those qualities to be bigger than the owner of an NBA team.
Just start with making your high school team. That’s the underrated quality. Everyone tries to miss steps. There’s only been 5,200 players who have ever played in the NBA in the world. You can’t miss steps. There are 5,200 people playing basketball in my neighborhood this weekend. I am a unicorn. For some people, I might be the only NBA player they might ever meet. That aspect is underrated. Let’s go from middle school and make our high school team. Let’s make a college team. Let’s get a great education through the process. Then everything else can come into play.
What did you learn while writing your book, Talk of Champions, published this year?
Smith: It’s a tell-all about all of the greatest people I’ve met and what I’ve learned from them. It was No. 1 in terms of doc sports books for the last few months. I took for granted that I learned so many great things from so many great people. I thought that everyone was around people like that, but when I started writing, my editor said that everyone who touched my life has books written about their life. I just thought everyone got to hang out with Shaq, Charles and Ernie. I thought that was normal, and then I realized it wasn’t normal.
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What were your impressions of your international travels to Abu Dhabi?
Smith: I was there as an ambassador, so to speak. That was my first time to the region. I was super impressed. I just felt like I was in the future of what life is going to be. There were a lot of exciting things. Everything is brand new. I haven’t played in the NBA in moons, but people still recognized me not only from TNT but also from playing. The fact people watch TNT on a daily basis across the globe with the time difference is astonishing. I’m walking through the streets of Abu Dhabi and people are screaming, “Hey Kenny! What up?!”
It’s amazing. The best players in the world are not necessarily American anymore. When I was in Abu Dhabi, I said that if you put the right facilities together, why can’t an NBA MVP eventually be from Abu Dhabi? The game is so global, and it’s taught on a global scale now. That makes an incredible difference. It’s the teaching of the game. That allows players to excel.
What can you tell me about your sand dune workout and your Steph Curry impression?
“Yo Steph. You’re not the only one trying to get in shape for the season!”
Kenny Smith had to try Curry’s sand workout 🤣
(via @TheJetOnTNT / IG)pic.twitter.com/fztJPjYgcR
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) October 11, 2023
Smith: I’d seen Stephen Curry do it when he was over there. I was either at the same place or somewhere very similar. When I run up the sand dunes while I’m out of shape, I don’t have the same body movements as Steph. I have one knee moving to the right and one knee going to the left. I just thought it would be hilarious. I exaggerated it a little bit but that’s what it’s about: having a lot of fun. He’s the greatest player in the world or one of the top few. I wanted to recreate it kind of like when I saw Kobe, bless his soul, jump over the car. I thought I should do that, too, and then have the car run into me. That was my “car running into me” moment.
What is going to be the biggest adjustment for Dame and Giannis as teammates?
Smith: Just how easy it’s going to be. It’s like if Drake and Jay-Z got together. If you put them together for 82 songs, they are going to figure out how to make a great song. It’s the same with those two. They’re going to figure out how to make great music. This will be the first time Dame hasn’t been double-teamed. There’s no such thing as building a wall anymore.
FTW: Can you offer up your predictions for the 2024 NBA Finals?
Smith: As we speak today, the Lakers have improved their roster as much as anyone. Milwaukee added a top-75 player who is still relatively in his prime: Damian Lillard. I think those are two teams that jump out at you in terms of improvement. We’ll see if the players from Denver and Miami who left had bigger roles than people thought. I think they’re going to have difficulty at some point, which they didn’t have last year. I liked the depth of those teams and the guys that left were big hits.
Who do you think are some of the most underrated players in the NBA?
Smith: The most underrated player in the NBA is going to be surprising to you. The most underrated player in the NBA, to me, is Russell Westbrook. I think people don’t appreciate how good he still is and I think this is the year — with the Clippers for a full year and playing for coach Ty Lue with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George back — that you will see and appreciate how great he is as a basketball player. I live in Los Angeles, so I get to see those games more. To me, he is the most underrated basketball player. He won the MVP, and people still don’t think he’s a great player. I still think he’s a great player, not a good player.
How much of that answer comes from your experience as a point guard?
Smith: I hope that it’s more of my analytical skills over my last 20 years on television. With what I look for and what I can see, I can watch a game now and 85 percent of the time, within the first seven minutes of the game, I know who is going to win based on the trend set. I really can see it with him. I can see what he can do for your team under the right coaching. At times, people expect him to do certain things instead of allowing him to do others.
Another guy that I’m going to say is James Harden. I think James Harden is underrated. I think he’s a shooting guard and not a point guard. If you look at him as a point guard, maybe he doesn’t have certain things. But as a shooting guard, he’s top five in the NBA. Those two guys are the most underrated but the most known. When those two guys changed teams, they were expected to do the things that they had done before instead of being allowed to do the things they are great at right now.
FTW: Maybe those two guys will become teammates this year.
Smith: Or the Clippers play the 76ers in the NBA Finals. How crazy would that be? [Laughs]
