"I don't know if I'm appropriate enough to say it what the players are feeling and how they're feeling. I haven't talked to any player.
"Even driving here and getting into the studio … hearing calls and people talking. … And for me, I think the biggest thing now As a black man as a former player, I think it's best for me to support the players and just not to be here tonight.
"And I figure out what happens after that," Smith added as he was leaving the set.
His last few words were only picked up by microphones of his colleagues after he took off his microphone and exited the stage.
The rapidly changing situation appears to have settled with NBA players reportedly deciding that they want to continue the season.
Play was set to resume this morning with Game 6 of the Western Conference series between Utah and Denver. Boston and Toronto were also to begin their second-round series before the Clippers and Dallas met.
Both the Lakers and Clippers reportedly voted to boycott the remainder of the season in a players meeting yesterday, however, reports suggest the meeting was more of a informal meeting among players.
The players have now agreed to resume the rest of the playoffs, according to reports. However, it isn't clear when games will start again.
It was the Raptors and Celtics who had been most vocal about the idea of a boycott, but the Milwaukee Bucks acted first when they opted to remain in their locker room instead of playing their Game 5 against Orlando on Thursday.
The NBA's board of governors met separately Friday to decide next steps.
One potential remedy for the schedule, one of the people said, was to play the three games that were postponed Thursday on Saturday, and the three games scheduled for Friday on Sunday, though that had not been decided.
'If not now, when?'
Another powerful TV moment came just moments after Smith's walk-out, when NBA legend Chris Webber delivered an emotional speech about racial injustice.
"We know it won't end tomorrow," Webber said on TNT of the ongoing Black Lives Matter movement.
"We know there's been a million marches and nothing will change tomorrow. We know vote. We keep hearing vote. Everybody vote. But I'm here to speak for those that are always marginalised. Those that live in these neighbourhoods where we preach and tell them to vote and walk away."
He went on to say: "If not now, when? If not during a pandemic and countless lives being lost. If not now, when?
"That's all I want to hear. When? We know nothing is going to change. We get it.... but that doesn't mean young men that you don't do anything. Don't listen to these people telling you it's not going to end right away. You are starting something for the next generation and the next generation."
