Stephen A. Smith said he would blame President Donald Trump if the New York Knicks do not win the NBA championship, turning a television spat into a running postseason feud. On Thursday night, Smith used Sean Hannity’s show to stand by his claim that Trump’s appearance at Game 3 helped knock the Knicks off track.
The exchange matters now because it came after Trump was booed in Manhattan as his motorcade approached Madison Square Garden and again when his face appeared on the Jumbotron during the national anthem. Smith said Trump’s arrival killed the good vibes that had carried the Knicks to the finals for the first time since 1999, and he said Trump had no business being there. Hannity pressed him on that view, but Smith answered that people tell him to stay in his lane on politics while forgetting, in his words, that they do not know sports.
Trump has spent days firing back. He called Smith a nice guy but said someone needs a certain aptitude and a high IQ to run for president, then posted on Truth Social and in other remarks that Smith was an arrogant fool, a low IQ individual and “dumb as a rock,” unqualified for high political office or even low political office. Smith said he took no offense and shrugged off the insult, saying, “He ain’t fazing me one bit.”
Smith’s case rests on momentum, not mysticism. He said the Knicks had been on a 13-game winning streak and were flowing and playing exceptional basketball until Trump showed up. He said that every little thing can disrupt a true fan base’s rhythm and that he thought the team would lose Game 4 after dropping Game 3. Instead, the Knicks erased a 29-point deficit and won Game 4 by one point, 107-106, which undercut the cleanest version of his argument even as it kept the feud alive.
That is the part that makes this more than a one-night insult match. Trump, who Smith said was raised in Queens, New York and is a lifelong Knicks fan, has now become part of the story the team is trying to write in the postseason. Smith’s line is simple enough: if the Knicks finish the job, the argument dies; if they do not, he has already said where the blame will land. The next chapter depends on whether the Knicks can turn this into a championship run or leave Smith holding the charge he already made.
