Sekou Smith is a very, very good beat writer. That is almost all that needs to be said. I cannot claim to read other NBA beat writers on a regular basis, but I can confidently say I would not want to switch Sekou out with any of them. There may be better, but for people who follow the team, Sekou is well Sekou, first name presence with this team that provides news, notes and sights and sounds that give 82 games life. He raises a long season out of the mundane and into the highlight of the every day. What Sekou does with his writing and consistency is let each of us live and die with our team.
I don't agree with everything he says. Sometimes his required fluff pieces sit in the place of what I wish were stories driven by hard questions for our coach and players. But while I leisurely wait to write every recap, Sekou Smith is beating a deadline. He is gathering quotes and creating a narrative, and then he lets the rest of use it, examine it, jump to conclusions around it. He gives us a service that any fan base needs and that is a base of universal operation. Where ever you stand on Woodson or Horford or Joe or the beer guy in section 108, you are jumping off of at least something Sekou has written.
His blogs and newspaper articles provide the fodder for fans to argue, blogs to be written, and an NBA team to come alive. And to that I think we can all say thank you. We are excited you beat out Rathbun's hair.