Absolutely disgusted.
That's the best way to describe Stephen A. Smith's rant against his hometown favorite New York Knicks on ESPN's First Take on Wednesday morning.
Before ripping into the Knicks, Stephen A. offered the following caveat..."I'm going to try to keep my cool."
Well, that predictably didn't last long. After calling the Knicks an "unmitigated disaster," Smith really delved into his scathing rant over the Knicks landing the fourth pick in the NBA Draft stemming from Tuesday night's draft lottery.
Smith was one of 12 media members chosen to witness the league's process in choosing the lottery order and he miserably described the feeling of knowing that the team failed to secure a Top 3 selection a full hour before anyone in the public knew.
"I cannot tell you how excruciatingly painful that hour was waiting for it to come on the air because it sunk in," a dejected Stephen A. said on the air Wednesday morning. "I was in the room with these guys when the Knicks ended up getting the fourth pick. I can't even tell you the level of misery I have felt, I'm still feeling. I barely slept last night because I'm just so disgusted with the New York Knicks."
From there, Smith blasted Knicks president Phil Jackson for everything from selling fans and Carmelo Anthony a Garden of dreams—making them believe he was going to build a winner now—to trading Tyson Chandler and shipping J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert out of town for little in return.
But he wasn't done yet.
"Somehow, some way...it's worse under Phil Jackson!" he screamed. "Never in the history of the New York Knicks have they lost 60-plus games in a season!"
Stephen A. went as far as to say that Jackson should have used his Zenmaster tact to ensure a higher draft pick than No. 4, blasting him for not showing up at the draft lottery. He also blamed the organization for losing 65 games, but making a concerned effort to win meaningless back-to-back games in April as their third and second-to-last games of the season. We're not for tanking, but seriously...what's two more losses, when you've already lost 65 games?
Winning those games, left the Knicks with a 17-win season, one that the Minnesota Timberwolves edged in futility with 16 victories. Still, the Knicks had the odds to get the second draft pick. Instead, Minnesota got No. 1, the Los Angeles Lakers crept in and nabbed No. 2 and the Philadelphia 76ers got the third overall pick, leaving the Knicks fourth.
One has to figure that the T-Wolves will select Karl Anthony-Towns with the No. 1 pick and the Lakers will choose either D'Angelo Russell or Jahlil Okafor with No. 2 and Philadelphia selecting who's left with the third pick. That leaves the Knicks contemplating on whether to trade or use the fourth pick on unproven Emmanuel Mudiay, who played in China last year.
There's some times when Stephen A. flies off the handle...but the Knicks are so far from being a competitive team right now, that he's dead on. Watch his full rant here.
Skip Bayless tried to console Stephen A., telling him that Larry Brown thought highly of Mudiay.
"Emmanuel Mudiay just might step into Madison Square Garden & TAKE IT OVER." - @RealSkipBayless #TankFail
— ESPN First Take (@ESPN_FirstTake) May 20, 2015
It didn't work, though. Knicks' fans...get ready for what might be a very long 2015-16 season, unless Jackson can make something happen with that No. 4 pick.
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