{"id":67071,"date":"2025-05-30T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/67071\/"},"modified":"2025-05-30T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T23:32:09","slug":"stephen-a-smith-says-knicks-have-zero-chance-of-winning-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/67071\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith says Knicks have ‘zero chance’ of winning NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even if they complete a miracle comeback<\/a> against the Pacers, an NBA championship is not in the Knicks\u2019 future, at least according to Stephen A. Smith.<\/p>\n

During Friday\u2019s episode of ESPN\u2019s \u201cFirst Take,\u201d Smith was brutally honest about his team, saying the Knicks have practically no shot against the Western Conference champion Thunder in the Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI give them zero chance, zero, of beating the Oklahoma City Thunder if they were to advance to the Finals,\u201d Smith said. \u201cDays ago, I\u2019m like, \u2018Hey, we got a chance.\u2019 And then I watched OKC, having to cover the Western Conference Finals and I see those bodies that they throw.<\/p>\n

Stephen A. Smith reports from the sideline during Game 4 of the 2025 NBA Western Conference Finals. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I see the New York Knicks\u2019 style of play and the lack of personnel, and you just see it in the way Oklahoma City defends. And that has taken some of the luster off my championship aspirations for the New York Knicks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the gloomy attitude about the Knicks\u2019 chances against Oklahoma City, the longtime sports commentator said he can see them at least reaching the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting there, I\u2019m all for it. But I would have to cover an NBA Finals where I\u2019m a New York Knick fan and I literally believe from the bottom of my heart that nothing short of divine intervention would propel them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith has remained tough on the Knicks<\/a> throughout the Eastern Conference finals, particularly calling out the decisions of head coach Tom Thibodeau following their Game 2 loss.<\/p>\n

Tom Thibodeau talks with guard Josh Hart during the second quarter of the Knicks\u2019 Game 5 win over the Pacers. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand for the life of me how in the hell he has KAT playing just 28 minutes,\u201d Smith said in a video posted on X<\/a>. \u201c[Thibodeau] is going to try to tell us it was defense. But with Mitchell Robinson on the court, the deficit increased.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following their 111-94 Game 5 win on Thursday<\/a>, the Knicks have to win the last two games to complete the 3-1 comeback, a feat that has occurred just 13 times in NBA history.<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage of the Knicks in the 2025 NBA Playoffs<\/p>\n

Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks<\/a> to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take<\/a> for insider texts about the series.<\/p>\n

Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton, however, is not worried about<\/a> a potential Knicks comeback, remaining confident that his team will bounce back following Thursday\u2019s loss.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a resilient group. We always want to respond when things don\u2019t go well,\u201d\u00a0the star Pacers point guard<\/a>\u00a0told reporters after Game 5. <\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns celebrates during the second quarter of the Knicks\u2019 Game 5 victory over the Pacers. AP<\/p>\n

\u201cWe understand what the stakes are and we understand the conversation \u2014 what it\u2019ll be around our group. But we\u2019re fine. We\u2019re fine. There\u2019s no need to panic or anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

Game 6 is set for Saturday at 8 p.m. in Indiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Even if they complete a miracle comeback against the Pacers, an NBA championship is not in the Knicks\u2019…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,130,304,6,11,197,1136,191,3810,3806,66,2086,3647,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-67071","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-knicks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-espn","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-nba-playoffs","13":"tag-nba-playoffs-2025","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-knicks","16":"tag-newyork","17":"tag-newyorkknicks","18":"tag-sports","19":"tag-sports-entertainment","20":"tag-sports-media","21":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114599398571699474","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}