Just last week, Stephen A. Smith made a promise to his beloved Knicks on First Take. “This year, I will not say a negative word about my New York Knicks,” Smith said, declaring the team untouchable after ending a 53-year championship drought.
That promise didn’t even survive a week. Back on the air, Smith launched into an extended rant aimed squarely at Knicks owner James Dolan, proving that even a freshly minted championship isn’t enough to keep him quiet for long.
“Let me put everybody in New York on blast. That damn James Dolan is getting in the way again,” Smith said. “We have some concerns. Where the hell is the extension for Leon Rose? Where the hell is the extension for Worldwide Wes?” Smith asked, referring to team president Leon Rose and senior advisor William Wesley. “Worldwide Wes and Leon Rose ended a 53-year drought and brought a championship to New York. Where’s their extension?”
Smith’s second complaint centered on the Karl-Anthony Towns extension standoff that has dragged on for months. He stopped short of arguing Towns deserves a full max contract, acknowledging that the Knicks also need to pay Jalen Brunson and their other young talent, but drew a hard line on the gap between Towns’ max value and the team’s reported offer.
“You don’t disrespect that man by cutting him short by $77 million,” Smith said, referencing the difference between Towns’ roughly $277 million max extension and figures closer to $200 million reportedly on the table.
Smith proposed his own compromise, suggesting a number in the $225 million to $227 million range rather than Towns’ full max, directly invoking the sacrifice Brunson made in his own extension. “Jalen Brunson took this hit. We need you to do it too,” Smith said. “I’m going to have to touch that second apron. I’m going to have to take care of your other cats.”
He was careful to separate that ask from any suggestion that Brunson himself should take another pay cut, calling the Knicks captain a franchise icon deserving of a statue outside Madison Square Garden for ending the title drought.
Stephen. A Smith closed by turning his concern toward ownership directly. He questioned whether winning a single championship might make Dolan complacent after 27 years at the helm of a franchise that had little else to show for itself. “It wouldn’t surprise me at all if his mentality is, all right, I delivered the chip, so now we can wait another quarter century,” Smith said. “And that is my fear.”
Between the front office snub, the Towns negotiation and his warning about Dolan’s track record, Smith’s rant undid his week-old vow almost entirely. Even as he continued to praise the players and executives who delivered the title itself.
For a promise that was supposed to last an entire season, it turned out Smith’s patience for Knicks front-office decisions ran out before training camp even wrapped.