ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith couldn’t contain his excitement after the New York Knicks beat the Memphis Grizzlies and secured their first winning season in eight years.
On Tuesday’s episode of ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman took turns reacting to the New York Knicks defeating the Memphis Grizzlies on Monday night. Kellerman reacted as one might to a golfer sinking a putt: tight-lipped, mildly approving, with a light and brisk clap for the respectable feat. Smith, by comparison, left his human body, ascended to that special place in the sky reserved for diehard Knicks fans, screamed “Hallelujah” at the basketball gods, and then came back down.
Smith’s head was bobbing faster than an apple in a water barrel being attacked by children’s mouths on Halloween as he asked rhetorical question after rhetorical question: “Did you see those New York Knicks last night? Did you see ‘em? Did you see ‘em?”
His plastered, giddy grin conveyed more than just the fact that the Knicks won last night, or that they clinched their first winning season in eight years. By his calculations, the Knicks have a good chance at making it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals. “Do you see what’s happening here?” Smith yelled. At one point, Kellerman makes direct eye contact with the camera, Jim Halpert-style, as if to ask us, “Do YOU see what’s happening here?”
Yes, we do, and we’re here for it.
Watch Smith’s entire rant below:
(Warning: the following video contains damaging noise levels, derogatory terms like, “BROOKLYN WHAT,” and graphic footage of a wild Knicks fan in an unnatural habitat.)
New York Knicks super-fan Stephen A. Smith goes off on his own show
Smith also casually mentioned his top-four league MVP list, which includes Nikola Jokic, Chris Paul, Joel Embiid, and of course, Julius Randle. His fandom for the Knicks took over the show like a derailed train, and even when the television crew tried to change the subject by showing a graphic of other NBA news highlights, Smith did all he could to keep the Knicks at the forefront of the discussion.
“I’m glad you brought up the Lakers,” Smith said to a colleague, giggling. “Did you know the Knicks and the Lakers have the same record right now?”
Kellerman finally tried to put in a pin in Smith’s ballooning joy and compared Knicks fans to Mets fans and Jets fans: “They’re all the same – you win a couple games and you think you’re going to win the championship. You lose a couple, the sky is falling.”
But nothing could stop Smith from saying what he waited his whole life to say, something that’s been bubbling in the heart cauldrons of Knicks fans ever since that woeful day they chose to be a part of the New York Franchise: The Knicks are legit.
At that end, Smith pulls out his veteran card and explains why he deserves this moment: In his nine years on the show, never has he raved about the Knicks.
And never, in the history of television, has anyone ever raved about the Knicks quite like that.