The Knicks have officially broken Stephen A. Smith.
Smith, a lifelong outspoken Knicks fan, reached the brink of his own sanity after the Knicks whiffed on Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving as free agency opened on Sunday, with the stars instead opting to pair up with the Nets.
“Somehow, someway I’m just trying to hold it together, you know,” Smith said in a video on Twitter Sunday. “Lifelong Knick fan. Years of mediocrity. I thought this was gonna be it. At least weeks ago. And then when I was doing ‘First Take,’ we were in Oakland and I got word of Kyrie and Brooklyn (and) realizing that meant KD in Brooklyn. Realizing that the New York Knicks were gonna go without anything with $70 million in cap space. [Kristaps] Porzingis gone. Porzingis can’t be gone, and we don’t get KD, and we don’t get Kyrie. No way. This can’t happen. But it happened.
“In three years, the Brooklyn Nets have accomplished what we’ve been waiting the New York Knicks to pull off for half a century. And more specifically in 20 years, the last 20 years, this is what they pulled off. This is what they pulled off.”
Smith has seen a lot of dark moments during his decades supporting the Knicks. To him, June 30, 2019 was the darkest.
“It’s the worst day in New York Knicks franchise history… this is the absolute worst day in the New York Knicks franchise,” Smith said Monday on ‘First Take.’
“The New York Knicks have lost New York to the Brooklyn Nets. They are no longer the team, the basketball franchise that represents New York City.”
After coming up empty, reports emerged that the Knicks were hesitant to even offer Durant a max-contract due to concerns over his ruptured Achilles. Smith isn’t believing a word of it.
“Making it public is bush league, it’s emblematic of what we thought of the New York Knicks,” Smith said Sunday on ‘The Jump.’
“I thought the Steve Mills/Scott Perry era was supposed to be a bit different, but this is a James Dolan-caliber mistake… More importantly, I think they’re lying… It’s a joke that they’d even put that statement out there, and it’s really sad.”
More than anything, Smith just wants to see a star play at Madison Square Garden. Instead the Knicks have made six minor signings, led by Julius Randle.
“I can’t even put into words my level of disgust, frustration and beyond,” Smith said. “Despite the obvious, I was holding out hope that Kyrie and KD might not go to Brooklyn after all. That they might come to New York City, that they might bless us with their presence, and that we might have a star for the first time in quite a while. I don’t want to hear about Patrick Ewing. I don’t wanna hear about Carmelo Anthony. I don’t wanna hear about Bernard King. I mean that’s how far back I got to go y’all. It’s been that bad.”