Jalen Brunson, KAT Trolled Stephen A. Smith for Picking Celtics to Beat Knicks
New York Knicks stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns weren't quick to forget how ESPN's Stephen A. Smith initially counted them out in their second-round series against the Boston Celtics.
After the Knicks' series-clinching 119-81 win in Game 6, Smith relayed his brief interactions with both players.
"Jalen Brunson came up to me and said, 'I have nothing to say to you,'" he said. "Karl-Anthony Towns said, 'You picked the wrong team,' because I picked Boston before the series began. I, like everybody else in America, changed my mind when they won Games 1 and 2 in Boston. There wasn't anybody picking [against] Boston outside of New York Knick fans."
In Smith's defense, the Celtics were the consensus favorites. They're the reigning NBA champions and went 4-0 against New York in the regular season. The Knicks getting pushed to six games by the Detroit Pistons did little to ease the general concerns about their contender credentials.
Expert panels from CBS Sports and ESPN were almost unanimous in selecting the Celtics to advance. ESPN's Ohm Youngmisuk was the outlier in going with the Knicks.
The Celtics were well and truly toast once star Jayson Tatum ruptured his Achilles, but Boston was already trailing 2-1 in the series before dropping Game 4. Having a healthy Tatum may not have made a difference in the overall outcome.
Brunson, Towns and their teammates have every right to revel in their upset.
