Stephen A. Smith claims Devin Booker as latest NBA star who wants to be a Knick

You’re not a true NBA superstar until Stephen A. Smith reports you want to play for the New York Knicks. And Devin Booker was the latest player to be initiated.

Congratulations, Devin Booker. You and the Phoenix Suns may have just been swept out of the NBA Playoffs by the Minnesota Timberwolves, but Monday morning, you were linked to the Knicks by Stephen A. Smith.

“Devin Booker wants to be in New York, that’s what I’m being told.” – Stephen A. Smith pic.twitter.com/FFvtq3sFzf

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) April 29, 2024

“I don’t know if it will ever happen. Devin Booker wants to be in New York. That’s what I’m being told,” Smith said to Shannon Sharpe on First Take. “Now, he might deny it. I haven’t spoken to him. I’m just telling you, the scuttlebutt in the NBA circles is that the brother wants to be in New York. So, if you’re Phoenix, you got at least two people, probably three, who are all getting paid about a $150 million combined, don’t want to be there.”

Modern NBA stars have come to expect two things, hundreds of millions of dollars, and for Stephen A. Smith to report they want to play for the Knicks. Booker now joins a list that includes LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, Donovan Mitchell, Damian Lillard, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Zion Williamson, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and others who saw their name linked to the Knicks by Smith on various levels.

So far, the only players from that list who went on to play for the Knicks…actually, none of them have played for the Knicks. Credit Smith for being the first to report LeBron and Chris Bosh were looking to join Dwyane Wade in Miami nearly 14 years ago. His Knicks pandering, however, doesn’t seem to be working.

Clearly, that hasn’t stopped him from trying. While it’s fun for Knicks fans to imagine another team’s star wearing the orange and blue, everyone knows to take these reports from Smith with a grain of salt, and some Knicks fans don’t even like his supposed fandom at all.

Earlier this year, Sam Morril, comedian and Knicks correspondent for The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, labeled Smith “a curse to the franchise,” believing the ESPN personality’s fandom is all for show. Morril went off again last week, blasting Smith for cheering Isaiah Hartenstein during the Knicks playoff run after chiding him earlier in the season.

And with the Knicks taking a commanding 3-1 lead over the Sixers Sunday afternoon, fans have similarly piled on Smith for previously mocking the addition of Jalen Brunson. Smith never graced Brunson with the coveted NBA star treatment, and in his defense, he wasn’t alone. Nobody foresaw Brunson becoming a superstar when the Knicks signed him.

If Booker ends up with the Knicks, great. But historically, if you’re an NBA star being linked to the Knicks, you’re probably not destined to wear the orange and blue. And as Brunson proved, if you’re an NBA player acquired by the Knicks without Smith’s blessing, it doesn’t mean you can’t become a star.

[First Take]