Chris Canty blamed him for the New York Knicks slow start in the Eastern Conference Finals, and Stephen A. Smith didn’t take it lightly.
After blowing a 14-point lead with less than three minutes to go and a nine-point lead with less than 60 seconds to go in Game 1 of their series with the Indiana Pacers, Canty suggested the Knicks might be suffering from The Curse of Stephen A. Smith.
Canty wondered if Smith’s incessant trolling of Dallas Cowboys fans was coming back to bite him in the form of karma. And Smith fired back on First Take.
“It’s that damn Chris Canty, I’m telling you right now, he does a phenomenal job for us on ESPN Radio every morning,” Smith began. “But ever since he got that damn radio show, he’s gotten more evil. That’s what he’s done. That’s what he turned into. Chris Canty used to be this nice big teddy bear…and then all of a sudden, he gets the morning radio show and he is just slicing and dicing people up – calling folks frauds and everything like that. And now he’s trolling me. I’m gonna get him.”
This wasn’t the first time Smith noted a change in Canty since he joined ESPN Radio’s national morning show last year. During a recent interview with Michelle Smallmon at Disney’s Upfront, Smith called out Canty’s “hostility” on the morning show and wondered if waking up earlier has had a “detrimental effect” on the positivity he used to exude. Smith did, however, note how proud he is of Canty’s work on the morning show with co-hosts Smallman and Evan Cohen.
But the backhanded compliment wasn’t enough to keep Chris Canty from inventing The Curse of Stephen A. Smith. And now the Knicks have a decision to make. If the Oklahoma City Thunder finish off the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday night, Smith’s schedule will be free to attend Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden. But if The Curse of Stephen A. Smith is real, should he be allowed in the building?
Smith loves the entrance videos when he’s walking into a big NBA game. But the Knicks might want to consider quickly filming an exit video to prevent The Curse of Stephen A. Smith from sitting courtside at the Garden.