"I just always want Will to know -- and I'm not sure he ever did -- how much I admired his forging ahead. I saw it coming before the rest of America got a chance to see it coming. I could see it coming in NBA All-Star Stay in School Jam and would think, 'This dude's freaking energy is huge in the room.' And you wouldn't necessarily get credit for that when you're a kid," he stated.

White and Smith originally met when White made a cameo on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. White was then given the opportunity to pitch Smith a new show, however, the partnership fell through.

"I should have called Will directly, and the truth was, I wanted to work with Will, badly," White penned in the new book. "Soon after my meeting with Will, his head of TV would end up getting relieved of his duties, which complicated the chain of command. And Will was becoming such a big star, so fast, that I didn't have the nerve to call his phone myself months later and ask, 'Hey, man, why'd you fire your head of TV? My agent said there was no deal to be made. They're offering me this show at UPN and I know in my heart this premise is weaker than ours.'"