![\"Stephen](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2260101412-e1775057145753.jpg\")
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Stephen A. Smith, New York Knicks<\/p>\n
Stephen A. Smith has ramped up his war of words with Josh Hart, following the New York Knicks<\/a>\u2018 111-94 loss to the Houston Rockets on Tuesday, March 31.<\/p>\n When speaking on an April 1 edition of ESPN\u2019s First Take, Smith shredded the Knicks for their recent losing streak, while also singling out Hart following their recent back-and-forth in the media.<\/p>\n \u201cMessage to Josh Hart, do I need to shut the hell up now?\u201d Smith said. \u201cDoes it make sense what I was saying now? You haven\u2019t won a game since you clapped back at me. He\u2019s on a losing streak since he\u2019s talked smack to me. Maybe if y\u2019all prioritized what the hell I was saying and paid attention to the substance of my comments instead of protecting your boys, you\u2019d be winning games against teams better than .500\u201d<\/p>\n The Knicks haven\u2019t defeated a team with a winning record since their March 6 win over the Denver Nuggets<\/a>. All of New York\u2019s seven-game win streak came against losing teams. As soon as the Knicks began playing higher-quality opponents again, they slipped straight back into the loss column.<\/p>\n Josh Hart Recently Called Smith A \u201cpart-time\u201d Fan<\/p>\n Stephen A\u2019s latest shot at the Knicks, and at Hart, comes after the Knicks forward labeled the veteran ESPN analyst as a \u201cpart-time Knicks fan.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, I think Stephen A., as a part-time Knicks fan, needs to shut the hell up,\u201d Hart said, via Newsday\u2019s Steve Popper<\/a>. \u201cHe barely knows guys that are on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n Stephen A didn\u2019t take that comment to heart, although he did respond.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t need to know you. I don\u2019t need to talk to you. I get paid to talk about you,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThey want to ignore the fact that I\u2019ve been covering the NBA<\/a> for over 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n Unfortunately for the Knicks, as long as they continue to stutter, Stephen A will have reason to call them out. After all, this is a team that made the Eastern Conference Finals last season. They were supposed to be pushing forward and emerging as genuine championship contenders.<\/p>\n Right now, that doesn\u2019t appear to be the case.<\/p>\n Josh Hard Sends Message To Knicks Teammates<\/p>\n During his postgame news conference following Tuesday\u2019s loss to the Rockets, Hart sent a warning<\/a> to his teammates.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not going in the right direction,\u201d Hart said, via Newsday.<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019re not trending upward. So we got to figure it out. Three tough ones. Got another one tomorrow. That\u2019s a must-win for us. And build from there.\u201d<\/p>\n Hart continued.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re obviously struggling right now to win games,\u201d Hart continued. \u201cStruggling to start games off. Struggling to focus on the attention to detail. Struggling to get outside of ourselves and focus on what the betterment of the team is. So tomorrow we have to play with a sense of desperation. A sense of being willing to sacrifice. To win.\u201d<\/p>\n With the regular season winding down, the Knicks have to find an identity, and fast. Otherwise, they could be in for a disappointing end to the season. If that happens, we should expect some roster changes during the summer.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Knicks fans will be hoping the team can right the ship once the playoffs begin. After all, they have all the necessary talent and experience. Now, it\u2019s just about making everything work together.<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tAdam Taylor<\/a> is a basketball reporter covering the Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Lakers, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Miami Heat for Heavy. He holds bylines for CelticsBlog, USA Today and Yardbarker. Adam also covers the WWE and AEW. He has a bachelor\u2019s degree in creative writing from Open University. More about Adam Taylor<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Knicks\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Stephen A. Smith, New York Knicks Stephen A. Smith has ramped up his war of words with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211],"class_list":{"0":"post-692102","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116330214756094581","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692102","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=692102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}