Key Points
- Stephen A. Smith apologized to the Knicks at a June 19 live taping of "The Roommates Show" at Madison Square Garden.
- Hosts Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart confronted him over his 2016 Villanova and 2022 "Brunson isn't the answer" takes.
- "I was beyond wrong," Smith said, apologizing on the ESPN-simulcast show as the crowd booed.
- The sold-out event came a day after the Knicks' title parade; proceeds went to the Garden of Dreams Foundation.
Stephen A. Smith built a career on being loud and certain. On June 19 he had to be loud and wrong. A day after the Knicks' ticker-tape parade for their first NBA title in 53 years, Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart taped a live edition of their podcast, "The Roommates Show," at Madison Square Garden — and used a sold-out, ESPN-simulcast room to make the ESPN host account for a decade of bad Knicks takes.
The receipts
The crowd booed Smith on sight, then Brunson and Hart read him his own history: the 2016 claim that Villanova — Brunson and Hart's national-champion roster, which also produced Mikal Bridges and Donte DiVincenzo — "doesn't have a real NBA prospect on this squad," and his 2022 on-air verdict that signing Brunson was a mistake. With the championship trophy on the table, Hart asked him to "sit here and admit you were wrong."
The apology
Smith took the full count. "I'm a grown-ass man. I was beyond wrong," he said. "I'm apologizing to this brother on national television; I'm apologizing to you; I'm apologizing to the entire Knicks organization." A booed ESPN host conceding on camera to the players he doubted is a small moment with a larger signal: the leverage has shifted. Brunson and Hart didn't go on Smith's show to be graded — they brought him onto theirs. The athlete-owned podcast, simulcast by the network that employs him, is the venue now, and the team that just paraded up the Canyon of Heroes got the last word. Proceeds from the sold-out night went to MSG's Garden of Dreams Foundation.
Source: Variety, Yahoo Sports
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