It’s been a very rough couple of days for Knicks fans. I mean, rougher than usual, which many didn’t even think was possible, and it’s the fault of Phil Jackson once again. Jackson, who has spent the better part of a year trying to run Carmelo Anthony out of town to no avail has now turned his attention to threatening to send the lone bright spot on the Knicks roster, Kristaps Porzingis, out of town.
It was first reported that Jackson was listening to offers on Porzingis and not telling teams that he was unavailable. That revelation led to professional yeller and lifelong Knicks fan Stephen A. Smith to lose his mind (more than usual) and become visibly distraught about what Jackson is doing to his beloved Knicks on national television. We thought that would be the best Stephen A. Smith moment of the week, but we were wrong.
On Wednesday night, more reports came out that the Knicks were actively calling teams about Porzingis and Jackson himself admitted in a TV interview that he was seriously considering trade offers coming his way about the young star, although nothing had yet piqued his interest.
That revelation set Stephen A. off in a way that no one could have imagined, and somehow, poor Lamar Odom ended up in the middle of it all.
Stephen A. Smith with an all-timer here. pic.twitter.com/RvPWHfjvtf
— Liam McGuire (@LiamRMcGuire) June 22, 2017
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a human being speak as fast as Smith does at the start of this rant, and he just slowly builds to a crescendo until he’s full on yelling about Lamar Odom being on crack when Phil Jackson signed him as his first act as team president. In the words of Ron Burgundy, that escalated quickly.
Smith explained that he wishes Odom the best and all of that as he battles back from his drug problems, but then doubled down on being upset about Jackson signing Odom while he was on crack. Max Kellerman had to compose himself for a moment before quipping back about whether it was Jackson or Odom that was on crack, because no one could’ve possibly seen this particular outburst coming. This is easily one of the top Stephen A. Smith moments in First Takes illustrious (?) history of hot takes and borderline incoherent rants, and we’d like to thank Phil Jackson for giving us this.
