Kenny Smith has been a TNT broadcaster and talk show anchor for the last 18 years of his career, beginning in 1998, the very year after he retired from basketball as a Denver Nugget. Since then, he’s become one of the most popular and revered broadcasters in the game, and plays a major role on TNT’s Emmy Award-winning Inside the NBA show.
However, Smith could be attempting to build a winning streak in a new area of the game: coaching. Smith has never been a head coach, but has always been considered someone knowledgeable enough of the game to try his hand at the position. His former team, the Houston Rockets, with which Smith won two NBA Championships in 1994 and 1995, think so too.
According to ESPN’s Calvin Watkins, Smith will meet with the team’s owner and general manager to interview for the position. The Rockets fired Kevin McHale less than ten games into this past regular season, and though interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff led the team to a playoff berth, he was not interested in the full-time job.
Whomever the Rockets choose, be it Smith or another candidate, he or she will have their work cut out for them. Despite boasting two elite talents in James Harden and Dwight Howard, the Rockets are considered to be a team on the decline, especially considering the dysfunctional relationship between Harden and Howard. It’s unlikely the team will be moving forward with both, and they don’t necessarily have a wealth of young talent to develop. With teams like the Timberwolves and the Kings on the rise in the Western Conference, the Rockets will need to reconfigure quickly before they lose their footing in the conference.