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Longtime Houstonians remember Kenny Smith as one of the key cogs on the Houston Rockets' championship squads of 1994 and 1995. After his playing career ended, he began a second act as a TV analyst, part of TNT's Inside the NBA, and on NCAA March Madness coverage on CBS.
In the audio above, he tells Houston Matters host Craig Cohen about some of the major figures who have had a strong impact on his life, like his first coach in the NBA, Bill Russell, and his Houston Rockets teammate Hakeem Olajuwon.
Also included in that list: His fellow Inside the NBA analyst Shaquille O'Neal, who Smith recalls, once “kidnapped” Smith's son from a Houston area school. That and other stories are a part of the memoir, which focuses more on life lessons learned from these and other figures, most of whom readers will recognize.
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