Who is the most thoughtful basketball analyst on TV?

Over the past 10 years, Duke alumni have dominated the broadcast airwaves, from Grant Hill to Jay Bilas to Jay Williams and at least a half dozen others. While Hill may be the prettiest and Bilas the smartest, the most thoughtful basketball commentator  on TV, in my opinion, is erstwhile Tar Heel Kenny “The Jet” Smith, co-host with Charles Barkley of Inside the NBA on TNT.

Perhaps The Jet should win an award for just having to sit next to Barkley over the last 18 years, but truth is Smith could have jumped to one of the bigger networks several times for more money. He makes plenty as is and has forged his own lifestyle with his family that includes model-wife, Gwen Osborne, and four kids, one of whom is R&B singer Kayla Smith.

It may be hard due to the nonsense going on around him on the TV set, but Smith is not only the best at analyzing the game he is also one of the smartest former athletes when it comes to matters away from basketball. After the wrath of recent tragedies in Minnesota, Tampa, Dallas and Baton Rouge, Smith refused to stay hidden in his private cocoon of fame and fortune. He has stepped out with some ideas on how athletes, particularly African Americans, can do something meaningful in their communities.

Smith advocates NBA players, and other black athletes, to give 10 percent of their annual incomes back to their chosen communities  for programs that can actually help misguided or unguided young men get on the right track. If you’re making 30 million a year, what’s 3 million, asks Smith. He didn’t make that kind of money when he was 25 and an NBA champion with the Houston Rockets, but he says the wealthiest athletes, past and present, can certainly afford it now.

Don’t just talk to talk, The Jet says, walk the walk. Step up with some money and some time to help turn around a troubling trend in America. Together, Smith says, influential athletes CAN make a difference, and they have time and resources for them to just do it.