{"id":683398,"date":"2026-03-28T03:03:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-28T03:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/683398\/"},"modified":"2026-03-28T03:03:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-28T03:03:26","slug":"stephen-a-smith-continues-josh-hart-feud-with-brutal-ny-knicks-reality-check-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/683398\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith Continues Josh Hart Feud With Brutal NY Knicks Reality Check"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Stephen A. Smith is not someone you can easily get to. But when <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/new-york-knicks\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"127\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New York Knicks<\/a> guard <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/josh-hart\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"1551\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Josh Hart<\/a> called him a \u201cpart-time Knicks fan,\u201d Smith didn\u2019t just fire back, he delivered one of the most personal and powerful responses of his career. And frankly, it was hard to argue with a single word of it.<\/p>\n<p>The drama kicked off after the Knicks\u2019 blowout 145-113 win over the <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/washington-wizards\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"590\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Washington Wizards<\/a> on March 23. Hart stepped up to defend teammate Mikal Bridges, calling the criticism surrounding him \u201cunfair,\u201d and argued that Bridges was simply doing what the coaching staff asked of him. <\/p>\n<p>When a reporter from <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/StevePopper\/status\/2037199988963361201?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">New York Newsday Sports<\/a> brought up Smith\u2019s earlier comments, in which he had publicly told Hart to \u201csit down and be quiet\u201d on First Take, Hart didn\u2019t hold back. He called Smith a \u201cpart-time Knicks fan\u201d who \u201cbarely knows guys on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Stephen A. Smith unleashed on Josh Hart<\/p>\n<p>Smith made it clear that Hart had severely underestimated him. \u201cYou don\u2019t even know how close I am to the people who cut your checks,\u201d Smith <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=BqLLl610hO4\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">said in his video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Then\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c he presented his resume: 20 years as an NBA journalist, covering more than 100 games a year while traveling, hundreds of locker rooms visited, and established relationships with longtime players and coaches, something that many other journalists would only dream of \u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200chaving.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve been a Knicks fan since I was three. Josh Hart, that would happen to be 24 years before you were born,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n<p>The ESPN analyst\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c\u200b\u200d\u200b\u200c\u200d\u200b\u200d\u200c was careful to make clear that his argument was never aimed at a personal level. He consistently made his point about the cost of getting Bridges, which was seven draft picks, including four unprotected first-rounders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeven picks, man. Seven,\u201d Smith said, making clear that those assets could have potentially landed a franchise-altering star like <a href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/tag\/giannis-antetokounmpo\" type=\"post_tag\" id=\"1089\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Giannis Antetokounmpo<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>As we know, earlier this season, when the trade deadline was around, Antetokounmpo name was highly linked to the Knicks. If the Knicks had all those assets in their pocket, there was a high chance that they could have landed Giannis, and it would have just benefited the Knicks.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img alt=\"avatar\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1755584894940.jpeg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-70 photo\" height=\"70\" width=\"70\" loading=\"lazy\" fetchpriority=\"low\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\tJayesh  Pagar  is  currently  pursuing  Sports  Journalism  from  the  London  School  of  Journalism  and  brings  four  years  of  experience  &#8230; More about <a class=\"more-bio\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsnaut.com\/author\/jayesh-pagar\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jayesh Pagar<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith is not someone you can easily get to. But when New York Knicks guard Josh&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683399,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3768],"tags":[7,327,304,6,1136,191,3810,3806,2603],"class_list":{"0":"post-683398","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-josh-hart","10":"tag-knicks","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-knicks","14":"tag-newyork","15":"tag-newyorkknicks","16":"tag-stephen-a-smith"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116304584086051976","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683398","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=683398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}