Top 44 Kenny Smith Quotes

Dunk, and people anywhere will ooh and aah. But you can wow a crowd in New York with ball handling and passing.

Mike D’Antoni is a great offensive mind. He’s a great coach.

I don’t know about bullying and all of that stuff. That doesn’t work in basketball.

Any guard would love playing with a great big man, one who rebounds, blocks shots, and scores.

If I’ve surprised others, I haven’t surprised myself with the way I’ve played.

By the time I turned 16, I’d played more than 300 games outside high school.

This league has great players, and it has great images. Sometimes those two things get confused.

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?

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.

I shoot too many shots in the summer to worry about my shooting.

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.

The older you get, the longer your jump shot becomes.

We all want to let fans behind the scenes. We just don’t want them following us around.

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.

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.

Coaching is definitely on the aspiration list.

I think that for me, as a UNC graduate, I value my education – I think everyone who’s gone to that university values education.

One thing is a pro is supposed to make certain plays, while a college player is learning to make plays.

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.

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.

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.

I’m not a boxer, I’m a basketball player.

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.’

Guys pay extra attention to detail. They are looking at every little thing on the scouting report.

Phil Jackson is a mastermind, and he knows how to keep his team from being complacent.

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.

I think it is inevitable that I’ll be coaching or be a GM.

As African Americans, we always have to fight for inclusion, despite your moral background: Christian, Muslim, Jewish – it doesn’t matter.

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.

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.

The Warriors are competition, and competition makes the best of us.

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!

The important thing is to be around people who will make you a better player. Otherwise, you can remain average.

When you play, you get an opportunity to hone your craft.

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.

From the outside looking in, I would say the franchise that has had the most stories that are unrelated to basketball are the Knicks.

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.’

Great players, they start becoming immune to what the defense does to them.

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.

The Rockets have a philosophy of what they think their coach should be.

Basketball is me.

I’m not from New Orleans, never knew anything about New Orleans.

I’ve played more park games than NBA games, and I had a 10-year NBA career.

I think, for me, one of the things I’ve been blessed with is the ability to speak with clarity.