ESPN’s First Take has upped the pageantry by taking Stephen A. Smith’s vocal analysis on the road. That can lead to some odd, but entertaining television.
Case in point, Smith went on one of his many scheduled New York Knicks rants after the Cleveland Cavaliers acquired Donovan Mitchell from the Utah Jazz. He went after his favorite NBA team for not landing the New York native.
Friday’s First Take took place in Canton, Ohio, for the 2022 Black College Football Hall of Fame Classic. The Winston-Salem State University cheerleaders appeared on the show, standing right behind Smith as he aired his grievances.
“Donovan Mitchell ain’t 35. He hasn’t collected a bunch of dust on his birth certificate,” Smith said to the cheerleaders’ amusement. “The brother ain’t about to go into retirement. He don’t have some AARP card waiting for him. This is a 25-year-old brother that’s good for 25 a game.”
It’s hard to tell if they were generally laughing or politely smiling for the camera. But they at least seemed to enjoy Smith’s theatrics more than colleague Marcus Spears, who stoically watched and waited his turn to speak with his hand on his chin.
This isn’t Smith’s first rant about the Knicks, and it won’t be his last. He even called them “worse than the Cowboys” as if it were a bold proclamation rather than a fairly obvious statement. The Cowboys just won their division last year, and the Knicks have made the playoffs once in the last nine seasons.