{"id":8921,"date":"2026-01-13T15:55:31","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T13:55:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/?p=8921"},"modified":"2026-07-03T17:47:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T14:47:02","slug":"speedy-smiths-confession-birth-in-a-hallway-visit-to-enemy-territory-and-taking-a-hit-from-the-championship-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/speedy-smiths-confession-birth-in-a-hallway-visit-to-enemy-territory-and-taking-a-hit-from-the-championship-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Speedy Smith\u2019s Confession: Birth in a Hallway, Visit to Enemy Territory, and Taking a Hit from the Championship Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Rytas Vilnius fans have a special opportunity to get to know their playmaker like never before. &#8220;ME2U&#8221; presents the latest episode of the &#8220;1-ON-1&#8221; series, where host Paulius Ambrazevi\u010dius sits down with one of the LKL\u2019s most charismatic players, Kenneth Speedy Smith.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">In a candid conversation, the American guard cleared the air regarding his controversial visit to Panev\u0117\u017eys, reminisced about the painful (quite literally) 2022 championship celebrations, and revealed the true story behind his famous nickname.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">To start the show, Speedy surprised the host by revealing that his nickname wasn\u2019t earned on the basketball court\u2014it was given to him on his very first day on Earth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">&#8220;Speedy was given to me at birth by my grandmother. Instead of me being born in an actual laboring room, I was born in the hallway of a hospital on the way to the laboring room. So I didn&#8217;t make it to the laboring room, so I was given the nickname Speedy. So that&#8217;s how I got it,&#8221; the point guard explained with a smile.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Furthermore, the playmaker admitted that basketball wasn\u2019t even his first love growing up in Florida.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">&#8220;Honestly, football is probably my favorite sport. Not probably, but it is&#8230; The decision making in a football game\u2014that&#8217;s my sport. Basketball just gradually became a little bit better and it just took me a little bit further. I&#8217;d rather watch a football game than a basketball game, to be honest,&#8221; Speedy confessed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Later, the conversation turned to a recent photo that stirred up discussion among the fans\u2014Speedy spotted in the stands at a Lietkabelis game. Knowing the fierce rivalry between Rytas and the Panev\u0117\u017eys club, he didn\u2019t mince words when setting the record straight.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">&#8220;I want to be quite clear&#8230; I am not a Lietkabelis fan. Nowhere, nowhere on this earth am I a Lietkabelis fan. Jamel Morris is my best friend. We&#8217;ve been best friends for years&#8230; So if my best friend is having a game, I just want to check it out. But you know what it is when you&#8217;re playing against Lietkabelis. There&#8217;s no friends&#8230; especially like 3-4 teams that, you know, they can kiss my ass,&#8221; the Rytas guard stated bluntly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">One of the highlights of the interview was the recollection of the 2022 LKL title. Speedy shared a memorable mishap from the celebration when the current team captain, Arnas Butkevi\u010dius, accidentally injured him with the trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">&#8220;He accidentally hit you with the cup&#8230; In the head, I remember that, yes. I remember, it was on the baseline when he hit me&#8230; That shit hurt, but it was so much celebration going on though. It didn&#8217;t even matter, man. Listen, I was trying to celebrate with these guys, man. We worked hard for that,&#8221; he recalled.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Reflecting on his career, Speedy emphasized that the 2021-2022 Rytas squad was the turning point that taught him the true meaning of a winning mentality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">&#8220;I feel like that team, to me, was really where I learned how to really win, to be honest. If I&#8217;m not on that team, I don&#8217;t learn how to win in Europe. That team showed me how to win,&#8221; Speedy concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"ng-star-inserted\"><span class=\"ng-star-inserted\">Watch the full &#8220;1-ON-1&#8221; episode with Speedy Smith to hear more untold stories, his thoughts on European basketball, and his career journey on the YouTube channel:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1-ON-1 with Speedy Smith | Presented by Me2U\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2GyyrdfxQtI?start=1967&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rytas Vilnius fans have a special opportunity to get to know their playmaker like never before. &#8220;ME2U&#8221; presents the latest episode of the &#8220;1-ON-1&#8221; series, where host Paulius Ambrazevi\u010dius sits down with one of the LKL\u2019s most charismatic players, Kenneth Speedy Smith. In a candid conversation, the American guard cleared the air regarding his controversial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8922,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[90],"class_list":["post-8921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rytas","tag-speedy-smith"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Speedy Smith\u2019s Confession: Birth in a Hallway, Visit to Enemy Territory, and Taking a Hit from the Championship Cup - Vilniaus \u201eRYTAS\u201c<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/rytasvilnius.lt\/en\/news\/speedy-smiths-confession-birth-in-a-hallway-visit-to-enemy-territory-and-taking-a-hit-from-the-championship-cup\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Speedy Smith\u2019s Confession: Birth in a Hallway, Visit to Enemy Territory, and Taking a Hit from the Championship Cup - Vilniaus \u201eRYTAS\u201c\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rytas Vilnius fans have a special opportunity to get to know their playmaker like never before. &#8220;ME2U&#8221; presents the latest episode of the &#8220;1-ON-1&#8221; series, where host Paulius Ambrazevi\u010dius sits down with one of the LKL\u2019s most charismatic players, Kenneth Speedy Smith. 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