Kenny Smith isn’t giving Coach K credit just for ‘doing his homework’

Kenny “The Jet” Smith is following his dad’s lead and not giving credit to Mike Krzyzewski for his Black Lives Matter video.

Kenny Smith learned about racism and how his actions affected other people that were different from him at a very early age.

“Every day of my life, every decision, even today I think about what other races are thinking while I’m doing this,” Smith told Da Windy City podcast. “I had to think about that since I was seven.”

Smith grew up in New York City in Queens before making his way to the University of North Carolina. “The Jet” had an interesting reaction to the video rival coach Mike Krzyzewski recently released to support the Black Lives Movement.

“I think that it’s great that he made a video,” Smith said. “I think that he wants to bring the awareness and the consciousness. But, it’s like my Dad used to say, I can’t give you credit for doing your homework. I’m not saying its wrong what he said and I’m not disrespecting what he did, it’s great. But, you did your homework. In my household, you don’t get the same credit for doing your homework.”

Smith is hoping for more awareness and consciousness from everyday people and from those who have hiring power.

“People of non-African-American descent have seen racism like a wave right in your face,” Smith said. “You can see it coming, oh there is the wave. But a lot of times, people who want change they don’t see the undercurrent and the undercurrent pulls you in deeper and drowns you worse.”

Smith also recently took up the hiring issue with his friend Bill Simmons who founded The Ringer.

“Bill Simmons was getting a lot of flak about diversity in hiring,” Smith said. “And I asked him with the social injustice I just want to hear from your mouth what’s going on. The one thing that he said to me that made it authentic he said, ‘it hurts me’. If it doesn’t hurt that you might have been doing something and you weren’t aware of it then you were doing it on purpose. But the first thing out of his mouth was ‘it hurts me.’ And that, to me, is part of change.”

Smith is looking forward to seeing NBA basketball come back, but also understands the desire to keep the social injustice conversation front and center.

“What Kyrie Irving said made lots of sense. Why would you sports in front of it (social injustice) that’s not the issue, I get it, it’s not even close. But, I also know that guys lets say like, I’m not sure what Montrezl Harrell thinks right now, but playing I’ll get to hear it.”

“The Jet” is doing his best to give back this summer with a virtual summer camp that has NBA and WNBA players working as camp counselors, including Kemba Walker and Brittney Griner.

You can sign up your basketball children here.