The Atlanta Hawks announced plans to permanently honor the memory of former Atlanta Journal-Constitution Hawks beat writer Sekou Smith.

Smith, who passed away on January 26 at the age of 48, will be honored by the Hawks with the media workroom at State Farm Arena named after him.

Also, according to the team at the end of this season, the Sekou Smith Award will annually honor the player on the team’s roster who best represents themselves and the franchise with professionalism and integrity in their interactions with the media.

In addition to that, the team will launch an annual Hawks-NBA Summer League internship in Smith’s name. Each summer, a journalism or multi-media student from a Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) school will be selected to serve as the Hawks’ beat writer for NBA Summer League, and their work will appear on the team’s digital team properties, providing valuable experience and clips.

Prior to joining the Turner Family, Smith served as the AJC’s Hawks beat writer from 2005-09 before joining NBA Digital as a multimedia reporter and analyst. 

Many players, coaches and journalists around the league shared their pain on social media when finding out about Smith's death.