Sekou Smith, Award-Winning N.B.A. Reporter and Analyst, Dies at 48 Mr. Smith, the creator and host of NBA.com’s “Hang Time” blog and podcast, covered professional basketball for more than two decades. He died of complications of Covid-19. Sekou Smith, a reporter for NBA TV and NBA.com, had a long career covering basketball.Credit...Turner Sports Jan. 28, 2021 This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others . For much of his journalism career, you would never see Sekou Smith in a sport coat. Not at the N.B.A. games he covered, not in the newsroom.