Stephen A. Smith reaffirmed he would blame President Donald Trump if the New York Knicks don’t win the NBA championship.
The sports and politics commentator ran rings around Sean Hannity on the Fox News personality’s own show, Hannity, on Thursday night after Hannity challenged him on his earlier claim that Trump was to blame for the Knicks losing Game 3 of the finals against the San Antonio Spurs.
Trump’s attendance in Manhattan amounted to a PR disaster. He was booed as his motorcade approached Madison Square Garden. He was booed when his face was shown on the Jumbotron during the national anthem. And after the game, Smith said it was all his fault.
Smith said that the president’s attendance at that game killed the good vibes that had carried them to the finals for the first time since 1999.
He stuck to his guns on Hannity when the 64-year-old said Smith must have “lost his mind” if he really thought that it would be Trump’s fault if the Knicks went on to lose the finals, which will now go to at least five games.
“They got their mojo back, OK?” Smith said. “But before the game, I said that and I stood by it. He had no business at that game. See, people—this is a hard conversation to your listeners out there because like you tell me to stay in my lane when it comes to politics, you don’t know sports! You don’t understand.”
The president and Smith have been going back and forth at one another for days.
After Smith’s initial comments, Trump, who turns 80 on Sunday and appeared to fall asleep during the game, swung back, saying, “He is a nice guy, but you need a certain aptitude to run for president. You need a high IQ,” he said, referencing Smith’s rumored White House ambitions. “I’m not sure that Stephen has that. I don’t think he does actually.”
He then followed up with a Truth Social frenzy on Wednesday, saying, “Stephen A. Smith is an arrogant fool, a low IQ individual. In other words, he’s ‘dumb as a rock,’ and totally unqualified to ever think of running for high political office, or even low political office, for that matter.”
“I take no offense with the president coming after me the way that he did,” Smith continued to Hannity. “People go after him every day. I certainly went after him. He has every right to come back and clap back at me. I’m a big boy. I can take it.
“He ain’t fazing me one bit. But this man was raised in Queens, New York—lifelong Knicks fan—knows about the suffering that spans 53 years. And when you are a true sports fan, you know every little thing could disrupt the momentum.”
Smith added: “After they lost Game 3, I thought they would lose Game 4. And sure enough, they were down by 29 points. So I definitely was blaming him because there’s nothing like they looked en route to a 13-game winning streak. See, he wants to talk and call me names and go—Donald Trump knows he had no business disrupting that mojo. Not a true New York Knicks fan.”
Had the Knicks lost in Game 4, which they won by one point 107-106 after a remarkable 29-point comeback, Smith said, “I’d have blamed it on Donald Trump. That’d have been on Donald Trump. Because of the 13-game winning streak, flowing playing exceptional basketball until he showed up.”
The battle between the two started when Smith accused the president of siphoning off the Knicks’ “mojo.”
“Our president showed up to New York City last night. And needless to say, what I feared would happen ended up happening,” he said to the backdrop of patriotic music. “The New York Knicks lost, and obviously I’m blaming him.”
“Why am I blaming him, ladies and gentlemen? It’s very, very simple, because the president disrupted our mojo. I’ve said this on many occasions over the last 24 hours and I’m saying it again. The man messed things up,” Smith said.
