This is our family picture from 1994 ⬇️
The Houston Rockets were fresh off winning their first NBA Championship and we were all in on “clutch city!” My brother Kory and I used to listen to the games on the radio as we went to bed.
We had an iconic team during that period—Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, and Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
Well, Kenny just released an autobiography that I finished in a couple of days. The book is filled with great stories which come to life since he’s the narrator.
Each of us is the result of both the questions we ask AND how we answer them. Asking good questions consistently signals thoughtfulness but the way we answer them also impacts the course our life takes.
Even if you and I asked the same question, we’d likely answer it very differently. That’s not bad since many of these questions don’t have one “right answer.” So today, we’re deconstructing the life of Kenny Smith and the questions he asked and answered that shaped his life.
And in case you want to check out several previous NBA stars I did, check these out: Donovan Mitchell and Jimmer Fredette.
❓What are you running toward❓
Kenny was recruited by many universities to play basketball but near the top of his list was the University of North Carolina. UNC featured a deep roster that included a very young and just coming into his own, Michael Jordan.
While checking out UNC, he scrimmaged with the team and described the experience like this:
“This practice was also the first time I had seen so many seven-footers on one team: Sam Perkins, Warren Martin, Brad Daughtery. Their size intimidated me. I can’t play here, I thought. I’m not good enough. This was the first time in my life I’d looked at other players and felt they were simply better. At that moment, I knew I couldn’t go to the University of North Carolina, I was scared in the same way as after my knee surgery.”
After that, Michael Jordan invited him out to dinner and they had this exchange:
“What do you think, New York?” Mike said. “You think you’re coming here?”
“I’m not sure,” I said. “I got to think about it.”
We stopped at a traffic light. He turned to me.
“You’re coming,” he said. “You know why?”
I looked back at him but said nothing.
“You got that eye,” he said. “That eye like I have. It’s the eye of the tiger.”
Then, I kid you not, he popped a cassette into the tape deck, “Eye of the Tiger,” that song from Rocky III started blasting. We laughed and sang along.
I thought back to a year earlier, when I woke up from surgery and my dad asked if I was a lamb or a tiger. After the knee injury, I’d chosen to run toward what scared me, not away from it.
I decided at that moment to join Mike and play at UNC.”
We all have a choice. You can run toward or away from the things that scare you.
❓What’s your ‘extra’❓
As a high school student, Kenny’s coach asked him what he wanted to be when he got older.
“My answer came out quickly, like it does at a third grade assembly when the teacher asks what you’re going to be when you grow up.
“Coach, I wanna be in the NBA,” I said.
His answer startled me.
“Oh I didn’t know that. You don’t work hard enough to be an NBA player.”
Mr. Curran had coached both future NBA and MLB players. He knew what it to get there, and it was obvious to him that I didn’t have it, at least not yet…
I vowed that a conversation like that would never happen again. In figuring out how to deal with that uneasy feeling, I began to really look at and think about the word ‘extraordinary.’
It dawned on me that to take my game to the next level, I just needed to do the ordinary things bit extra.
I started taking extra jump shots and layups, running extra laps, jumping rope a few extra times. Instead of taking the elevator to our twelfth floor apartment, I walked up the extra stairs. And I studied a little extra, too. All in an effort to become extraordinary.
It’s possible that you’re already doing the things you need to do to be successful but the difference between where you are now and where you could be lies in the ‘extra’ you’re willing to give. How much ‘extra’ are you willing to add to your ordinary?
❓What statistics are you measuring❓
While a rookie with the Sacramento Kings, his coach, Bill Russell taught him a valuable lesson about what stat matters most.
During one particular practice, one of Kenny’s teammates, La Salle Thompson started asking Russell questions about his stats as a player.
“But, Coach, what was your shooting percentage when you played?”
Coach Russell was never one to back down from a verbal challenge.
“My percentage was 11 out of 13—11 rings in 13 years.”
The room was silent. Lesson learned: always think team, always count wins.”
Oh snap. That might be the coldest mic drop moment ever.
You get to choose how you measure your life. You can go all in on the individual statistics or you can think bigger and ensure that not only you win but the bigger team wins as well.
❓What type of teammate are you going to be❓
While still in high school, there was a crosstown rival, Michael Jackson (not the singer) who got signed by the Georgetown Hoyas at the time. Jealousy made Kenny dislike Michael before he even knew him. Then when Michael won the NCAA championship as a junior at Georgetown, Kenny really started to hate the guy.
Fast forward to Kenny’s rookie season when he gets his roommate assignment for road games with the Sacramento Kings and guess who it is?
“Wassup Kenny!”
It was Michael Jackson. They were gonna make me room with this dude?
“I’m so happy you’re here,” Michael said.
Something was suspicious. This was a guy whom I had never met, and who had probably heard that same stuff about me from Coach Thompson that I’d heard about him form Coach Smith.
And he seemed genuinely happy I was there, even though my presence probably meant he would never play.
“Yo man, let me tell you about the team, here’s our plays, so you can jump right in and be ready tomorrow.”
He talked about the tendencies of our players and provided many other insights intended to make me better, even though that would mean less playing time for him. The guy I hated was not a hater. He was giving me directions ot be successful. Michael wanted to share and empower.”
A little while later, Kenny had a chance to repay the kindness. As he was leaving Coach Russell’s office one day, he learned they were planning to cut Michael from the team.
“My heart dropped. I knew that Michael had more passion for the game than any of the other players remaining on that sorry Sacramento team. I couldn’t let my guy get the axe.
“Coach, I said, “can I give the difference of my salary for him to stay?”
Coach looked at me puzzled, “you would go to bat for him like that?”
“Yes,” I said firmly, “He’s a winner, coach.
Coach Russell paused to think for a moment, “Well, Kenny, the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement won’ allow me to do that. But since you went to bat for him, we will keep him.”
Fast forward many years later after winning two championships and now being relegated to the bench, Kenny saw the guy who took his spot as a starter practicing alone in the gym. He walked over and offered some help.
“Eldridge, man, here’s some things I see.”
When I shared my insights with him, it was like a light went on.
“Oh whoa!” he said, beginning to see the game differently.
Back on the other end of the court, my dad yelled at me.
“What the hell did you do that for? He said, aghast that I would help the guy who took my job.
“Dad, at the end of the day I’m on the team, I said. I can’t let him struggle. Even though he’s taking my spot, I’m gonna give him my information.”
You know what’s crazy about Kenny is that I could have added in another 3-4 different stories about him being the type of teammate you would want on your team. Sometimes we get to choose our teammates and other times we’re forced to work with certain people but no matter what, we get to choose the type of teammate we will be to others.
❓Where’s your focus❓
In 1995, the Houston Rockets matched up against the more talented Orlando Magic who had just beaten Michael Jordan’s Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals.
“We were the defending champs, but we knew that Orlando was more talented.
Watching them drive into the arena in Orlando was like being at a car show. Anytime Penny got new wheels, Nick Anderson had to top him, and Shaq had to get a car better than both of theirs.
It was like Pimp My Ride with every feature you could imagine. We would see goldfish tanks in their cars, look at one another and say, “man we’re gonna get them, because they’re too caught up in everything.”
It was the same when we noticed the fashion show they staged while walking from their cars to the locker room It takes a lot of effort to focus on questions like, “what suit and I wearing today? Did I get a haircut? Is my car sparkling?”
Those things require energy when you’re trying to win an NBA championship.We didn’t think they were focused, and we didn’t think they were mature. If they had been, they probably would have beaten us. But as it was, we swept them in four games.”
Champions focus entirely on the moment in front of them, the task at hand. They remove even the smallest distractions and they definitely don’t invite additional distractions into the moment.
❓What will you choose❓
Kenny tells a heartwarming story about his TNT co host Ernie Johnson. Ernie and his wife Cheryl adopted a young Romanian boy who had been abandoned in a park as a baby. When Cheryl saw the boy in the orphanage she was told, “don’t take this boy, he’s no good.”
She called Ernie and told him that the child was more than they could handle, but she couldn’t imagine going through life wondering what happened to him,
They knew from day one that it was going to end in a difficult way.
After a lifelong struggle with his health, Michael died in 2021 at age thirty-three. Ernie was devastated.
But as I reflected on the joy that he drew from parenting and finally the celebration of life that was Michael’s funeral, I realized that I’d had it backward all along.
The boy had made Ernie and Cheryl’s life happier and more fulfilling. By adopting him, it seemed from the outset that they were choosing heartache, but that wasn’t the case.
They were choosing the heart—not the ache.”
Experiences happen. They just are. It’s us who add meaning and emotion to them. As the author of your story, you get to choose the way you’re going to describe those events. What story will you choose to tell?
❓What type of person do you want to be❓
As Hurricane Katrina tore through the gulf and destroyed southern Louisiana, Kenny reached out to the president of TNT to organize a benefit game to raise money for relief work. At first, he was told they could do it the following summer—Kenny said they would do it on Friday.
Kenny immediately reached out to Kobe Bryant and pitched the idea.
“I’m in. I’m in. Just tell me what I need to do.”
Kobe was on board, no questions asked. It was that easy.
Next I called Kevin Garnett.
“Yeah man, good idea—who’s playing?”
This must have been why my instinct was to call Kobe first. Kobe was not going to say, “who’s playing?”
You can be the person who does the right thing for the right reason or you can be the person who sits back and waits to see if it’s “worth” doing.
❓How can you overdeliver on this❓
“Magic [Johnson] explained that the first $100 million hedge fund he was involved with came as a result of a connection he made over a $15,00 sponsorship. He overdelivered on that project and earned the trust to do more.
When you think about Magic Johnson’s basketball career, the theme was very similar: he overdelivered.
He didn’t have to high-five teammates or smile as he played. Entertainment was the bonus that made teammates adore him and fans love him even more.”
This happens all the time. Think about the people you would trust with no questions asked. It’s probably a short list and whoever is on the list is there because they have overdelivered for you in the past. A little extra can go a long way.
❓What do you want to remember about that moment❓
Kenny has spent time around the best the NBA has ever known, has won championships, and now cohosts an Emmy winning TV show.
He learned a valuable lesson from teammate Sam Cassell while on that championship winning Rockets team.
“Sam was a basketball head like the rest of us. He would be in the back of the bus with the group dissecting the game—but the difference with Sam was that he would point out every moment that was fun.
“We lost, but remember when we made that guy fall?” he’d say laughing.
Our default is often to pick up on the negative things that happen. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Often, even in the midst of a challenge there is something good that can be focused on. You get to choose the story you want to tell - find the good!
I love looking at the lives of others and thinking about the questions that shaped them. I feel like this is an exercise everyone should do. Think about your life and the journey you’ve taken and the questions you answered along the way sometimes intentionally and sometimes by default.
And Kenny, if you somehow end up reading this, what’d I miss? Are there any other questions that shaped you? Do you have any questions you recommend?
Keep Asking,
Kyle
Oh man, such a great read Kyle! As a Jazz fan, the Rockets were definitely one of the teams that I wanted to beat, but I loved watching those guys play. Kenny is such a great example of an excellent teammate and human being.