'Second-Best' New York Knicks Rip Kenny Smith's Rant

The current New York Knicks roster took exception to Kenny Smith's scathing critique.

It's safe to say that members of the New York Knicks find Kenny Smith's thoughts on the current roster "terrible." The Knicks didn't quote Smith's fellow TNT analyst and NBA champion Charles Barkley directly but their response to Smith's recent rant certainly hint at vehement disagreement. 

During TNT's pregame coverage of the Knicks' In-Season Tournament quarterfinal showdown against the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night, Smith ripped the metropolitan roster as currently constructed, accusing the team of never having the best player in any given contest.

"Every game that they play, they always have the second-best player," Smith declared. "They can play better than you, but they are not walking into the gym and saying that's a better player."

Smith's co-panelists concurred, joining the masses in prescribing a blockbuster trade to ensure a better chance at contention. Barkley claimed that the Knicks had not made any worthwhile additions in any of the past three seasons, a particularly damning statement considering that president Leon Rose and executive vice president William Wesley were reportedly hired due to pasts as player representatives. 

Jalen Brunson (L) fought back against an anti-Knicks rant staged by Kenny Smith / USA TODAY SPORTS

While Smith might've taken his comments to the extreme (claiming that the Knicks did not have a player as strong as Paolo Banchero in Orlando, for example), this week offered him immediate vindication: New York was eliminated from In-Season Tournament contention in a 146-122 loss to the Bucks and later fell to the Eastern Conference-leading Boston Celtics by 10 three nights later. With those defeats, the Knicks (12-9) fell to 2-9 against competition with active winning records, which includes an 0-5 mark against Milwaukee and Boston.

Before the beatdown in Beantown, prominent Knicks took Smith to task. 

Point guard Jalen Brunson, prior to sustaining an injury in Friday's game, took pride in the way the Knicks exceeded expectations last season. While some so-called experts believed that the Knicks' ceiling was the Eastern Play-In Tournament, New York responded with a 47-win campaign and the franchise's first playoff series victory since 2013.

“I remember at the beginning of the year last year, people were counting us out, and then at the end of the year, we end up making it to the fifth seed and winning the first round and moving on and being close to going to the conference finals,” Brunson said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. “So it’s all about how you get better every single day. Whether people think you have it or don’t, it’s all about how you can be the best team at the end of the year.”

To that end, forward RJ Barrett found Smith's comments hypocritical.

“A lot’s going to be said,” Barrett noted, per Kristian Winfield of the New York Daily News. “First we were never going to be good. Now we’re good and now we’re not good enough. I think for not having the best player, we do well for ourselves.”

From that standpoint, it's hard to argue. If the Knicks are truly bereft of "best" players, it's certainly a feather in head coach Tom Thibodeau's cap: since he took over in the 2020-21, the Knicks have 137 games, good for sixth-most in the Eastern Conference. Julius Randle has been their only All-Star in that span (twice in 2021 and 2023) though Brunson was widely viewed as one of the most glaring snubs from last year's edition.

But expectations grow in New York and a beleaguered fanbase is losing patience. It's been 23 years since the Knicks appeared in the Eastern Conference Finals, the third-longest drought of its kind behind only Washington (44) and Charlotte (33). Pressure and pleading for a star will likely only amplify if the Knicks continue to struggle against superior competition.

None of those calls are coming from the Knicks' locker room at this point.

"Figuring out how to win these games, especially on the road, will be very good for us," Barrett said, per Bondy, as the Knicks prepare to embark on a five-game road trip next week. "I think we’re in an OK spot right now but we have a lot to do to get to where we want to be.”

"Myself and Julius, we have never talked about needing a star or being a star or anything like that,” Brunson said, per Winfield. “We just focus on the little things and how we can focus on winning. Everyone talks about stars and all that stuff, but how can we win now with what we have and not really focus on anything on the outside?”

The lone answer to Brunson's query, of course, is to prevail against the Association's finest and the Knicks have a prime opportunity to do so: after a brief return to Madison Square Garden to face Toronto (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG), the aforementioned five-game trek will pit New York against high-octane interconference foes like the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers.