Stephen A. Smith had a chance to dunk on President Donald Trump after the New York Knicks won the NBA championship late Saturday night.
He passed.
Yes, really.
After the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs, 94-90, in Game 5 of the NBA Finals at Frost Bank Center, OutKick/Fox News Digital caught up with Smith and asked whether he had any response to Trump now that New York had officially ended its 53-year NBA championship drought.
Smith, who had spent several days talking about Trump’s appearance at Madison Square Garden earlier in the series, wanted no part of it.
“The Knicks just won the title. I don’t give a s— about politics or anything like that. I could care less. You could ask me tomorrow, you could ask me Tuesday. But right now, the New York Knicks just ended a 53-year drought. I’ve waited all my life for this moment. And I’m not going to let anything get in the way of that,” Smith told OutKick/Fox News Digital.
“There’s no disrespect to you or anybody else. It’s just that that stuff is the furthest thing from my mind. I’ve been a lifelong New York Knick fan, born in the Bronx raised in Hollis, Queens. [There’s been] one disappointment after another after another. It’s been 53 years. And it’s over,” Smith concluded.
TRUMP TORCHES STEPHEN A SMITH’S PRESIDENTIAL HOPES AFTER KNICKS LOSE GAME 3 WITH TRUMP AT MSG
That was Stephen A. Smith, one of the loudest and most opinionated voices in sports media, choosing not to extend his public back-and-forth with Trump because the Knicks finally won the NBA Finals.
Imagine that.
And, to be fair, it was probably the right call.
Smith had every opportunity to take a victory lap after New York closed out San Antonio. The Knicks lost Game 3 with Trump in attendance at Madison Square Garden, which gave Smith plenty of ammunition after he spent the lead-up to the game saying he did not want the president there.
Smith said Trump had “no business” showing up in New York City for Game 3. He argued the president’s presence would create unnecessary chaos around one of the biggest Knicks games in decades. He also said he would blame Trump if the Knicks lost.
Well, the Knicks lost.
And Trump had a response.
After attending Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, Trump spoke with reporters before boarding Air Force One to head back to Washington, D.C. OutKick/Fox News Digital asked Trump about Smith, who has repeatedly talked about running for president, saying Trump would be responsible if the Knicks lost.
“I think he’s a nice guy, but you need a certain aptitude to run for president,” Trump said at the time. “You need a high IQ. I’m not sure that Stephen has that. I don’t think he does, actually.”
So, there was Trump, after watching the Knicks lose at Madison Square Garden, responding to Smith’s criticism by taking a shot at his constant White House flirtations.
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Smith, of course, responded in kind.
The “First Take” host went on ESPN the next day with an American flag behind him and presidential music playing in the background and delivered a lengthy monologue.
“You wanna talk about IQ, I could say I could put my IQ against yours any day of the week,” Smith said. “I could go one better. I can ask you why you’ve been running from me for the last year since I wanted to talk to you. I could ask you to debate me since you think you’re that dude. We can go a myriad of ways with all of this.”
Trump later escalated the feud Wednesday morning on Truth Social, calling Smith an “arrogant fool,” a “low IQ individual” and “dumb as a rock.”
Smith kept firing back, too. He continued talking about Trump’s appearance affecting the Knicks, New York City and the overall atmosphere around the Finals.
In other words, this had all the ingredients of a sports-politics-media feud that could have gone on forever. And it still might.
But, for one night, the Knicks’ historic victory took precedence over a war of words.
Jalen Brunson put on a historic show, scoring a Knicks Finals-record 45 points and willing the franchise to its first NBA title since 1973. For a fan base that had spent more than five decades waiting for another championship, that was the story that had Smith’s attention.
Not Trump.
Not his own potential political future.
Smith has built an entire career out of always having something to say. He debates. He rants. He monologues. He finds a way to make himself part of the story.
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But standing inside Frost Bank Center after the Knicks won the NBA Finals, Smith changed his approach.
No dunking on Trump.
No victory lap.
No pivot back to presidential politics.
Just a Knicks fan trying to process the fact that one disappointment after another after another had finally ended.
Smith can respond to Trump tomorrow. Or Tuesday. Or whenever ESPN decides the feud is worthy of another television segment.
For one night, though, even Stephen A. Smith decided the Knicks winning the championship was enough.
Imagine that.
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