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OK … Sekou. In 20 years in this crazy business I’ve been lucky enough to spend time around some giants. The best of the best. I’ve learned from them all. I don’t think anyone taught me more more than Sekou. 1/ https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/1354219394545680385
My first real beat job was covering the Indiana Pacers for AP in 2003. I got to Indy and didn’t know a soul, and at 24, knew even less about how to do this job. Sekou was on the Pacers beat at the Indy Star.
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Technically, we were competitors. But Sekou welcomed me with open arms. He showed me around, invited me for drinks, lent his expertise and advice for a kid who had no idea what he was doing. I watched him and Mark Monteith closely and learned from Sekou how to work a room.
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There was no one more plugged into a beat because Sekou talked to EVERYBODY. He knew ushers and security. He knew players and coaches. He knew families and agents. He knew interns and executives. He charmed them all with his genuine nature and firecracker humor.
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Sekou's energy pulsed through Conseco Fieldhouse. He taught me how to respect everyone, from coaches to players to GMs. But he also taught me to never give them TOO much. 5/
He’d crack jokes in the locker room, bust balls in the hallways and no one was above it. Not the equipment manager, not his fellow journalists, not Jermaine O'Neal or Larry Bird. “They’re all just as full of shit as you and I are,” he would tell me. 6/
And we all loved him for it. He was warm and caring and funny as hell. As authentic as they come. He loved covering the NBA but he was never overly impressed by it. When he moved to Atlanta I was thrilled for him. When I moved back home to Minnesota, he was thrilled for me. 7/
Sekou would call me whenever the Wolves were in some sort of catastrophe (which was often) and we would laugh and laugh. Man, that laugh. He was always cackling, but when your joke was the reason, it made you feel like you were the funniest comedian who ever lived. 8/
I’m going to miss seeing him at NBA Finals and All-Star games and summer league parties. I’m going to miss his calls when the shit was hitting the fan and how he would laugh when I told him some of things that I knew but didn’t have cold enough to report. 9/
As sick as I feel tonight, I know it’s nothing compared to what his family is going through. All I can do is pray for them to find some peace. To think that there have been 425,000 of these thunderbolts in the US alone is truly heartbreaking. Mask up and be safe. 10/10
