NBA analyst Kenny Smith walks off TNT set in solidarity with players

(Image credit: Stephen Lovekin/Getty Images for American Express)

published 26 August 2020

Kenny Smith, a former NBA player who now works as an analyst for TNT's Inside the NBA, took off his mic and left the show's desk live on air Wednesday in solidarity with NBA players who are boycotting their playoff games in response to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Sunday.

Smith was in the TNT studio Wednesday, along with show host Ernie Johnson and fellow former NBA stars Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley, to discuss the boycotts when he said he hadn't talked to any of the players, but came to the realization that "for me, as a Black man, as a former player, I think it's best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight." He then stood up and walked off set. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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