The Knicks weren’t precisely enjoying their finest basketball in opposition to the Pacers by three quarters on Tuesday evening.
And Stephen A. Smith was letting them find out about it as straight as he might.
The ESPN “First Take” panelist took to X throughout Recreation 4 and known as out the staff — which had 14 turnovers by 36 minutes — and he known as for each Mikal Briges and Josh Hart to get it collectively, tagging their handles.
“The @nyknicks desperately need @mikal_bridges to step up if they’re going to win this game. Missed shots. Turnovers. ill-timed decisions. #Damn [Come] on bro,” he wrote. “You too @joshhart. The @nyknicks need him too. Not taking the damn night off with one mishap after another! What the Hell is going on!”
Hart and Bridges mixed for simply 15 factors by three quarters because the staff trailed by 11 factors going into the ultimate quarter.
Recreation 4 was an enormous swing recreation for the Knicks, which in all probability factored extra into Smith, a well known fan of the staff, getting riled up over the staff’s play.
After dropping two heartbreakers on residence court docket, the Knicks rallied in Recreation 3 to make it a 2-1 sequence earlier than Tuesday evening.
NBAE through Getty Photos
However after Recreation 1’s 14-point choke job, ex-NFL defensive finish Chris Canty mentioned on ESPN Radio that the Knicks have been perhaps affected by what he known as “the curse of Stephen A. Smith” for his incessant trash discuss of the Cowboys.
Smith took exception to the trolling.
“It’s that damn Chris Canty, I’m telling you right now, he does a phenomenal job for us on ESPN Radio every morning,” Smith mentioned on “First Take” this week. “But ever since he got that damn radio show, he’s gotten more evil. That’s what he’s done. That’s what he turned into. Chris Canty used to be this nice big teddy bear…and then all of a sudden, he gets the morning radio show and he is just slicing and dicing people up – calling folks frauds and everything like that. And now he’s trolling me. I’m gonna get him.”
If the Knicks don’t come again to take the sequence, it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how that dynamic performs out.
