Remembering my brother like no other, one year after his death

The pain from the passing of journalist Sekou Smith a year ago, still lingers for many - including myself.

The Power to Pivot.

For those who have been around me for years and for those who I have been blessed to call students of mine at Boston University, y’all know how much I believe in this and talk about the need to flex it from time to time.

Well, today is one of those days for me.

I had every intention of posting about Sherrod’s Super 7 teams in the NBA today, focusing on which teams are ballin’ out right which includes those on the top shelf in terms of success as well as a couple who are on the come-up.

I have a snazzy new logo which I wanted to ramble on about for a few, but I won’t be doing that today, either.

As I sat here in my Atlanta hotel room, staring at my computer screen nearing the end of my Super 7 list, I just stopped.

I stopped because I couldn’t hold in anymore the one thing that I’ve been thinking about for months but failed to speak about other than a tweet here and there and an NBA TV hit about it on Wednesday.

And that’s talk about Sekou Smith.

For those who don’t know or remember, Sekou was an NBA TV analyst who passed away last year following health complications after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Wednesday, January 26 marked the one-year anniversary of his death which coincidentally, marked the two-year anniversary of the passing of basketball icon Kobe Bryant.

Sekou was more than just a fellow journalist who I knew.

And to say we were friends, doesn’t do justice to how cool and close we have been throughout a brotherhood that lasted 20-plus years.

We both had very humble beginnings journalistically, starting off as part-time clerks in sports departments before working our way up to being full-time reporters.

Our transition to covering the NBA (him in Indiana and later Atlanta) began a year apart when I left North Carolina covering the ACC, to go to Michigan (his home state) to cover the Detroit Pistons.

The pivot to broadcast television, something neither of us coming up thought would ever happen, also happened around the same time with me working for NBC and Sekou working for Turner Sports.

For me, he was the one voice I could always count on to shoot straight with me about anything and everything because he was literally going through a lot of it himself both professionally and personally.

The last time we talked, he was on my podcast which was just a few days before he tested positive for the coronavirus and was hospitalized.

We did our usual NBA spiel on the podcast, but afterward, we talked about our families, getting vaccinated, and how our people/families drive us nuts sometimes… OK, a lot of times.

“But hey,” I remembered him saying. “They’re crazy but they’re our crazy, right? Gotta love him.”

And so many of us love you, Sekou.

This is in part why I’m in Atlanta right now.

While I am here covering the Boston Celtics-Atlanta Hawks basketball game tonight, I had every intention of being here, this week well before the schedule came out. We all have our own process for grieving loved ones; this is part of mine.

I would have been in Atlanta on the actual one-year anniversary of his passing but that’s when I teach a sports journalism class at Boston University, and this week was our first class of the semester.

And knowing Sekou, he would have told me to come “whenever,” but would have also added, “just don’t bring none of that cold ass snow witchu! We don’t want those problems down here!”

I miss all the jokes.

I miss all the conversations and text messages.

But above all, I miss being in the presence of my brother like no other.

This brings me a little closer to him.