Stephen A. Smith Loses His Mind On Kendrick Perkins For Giving The Knicks Too Much Credit

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Don't you dare underestimate the pain of New York Knicks fans and Stephen A. Smith. Kendrick Perkins made that mistake Friday morning.

On ESPN's First Take, the hosts were discussing Draymond Green's comment that the Knicks playoff run is simply "a fluke" because the path through the Eastern Conference is not as tough as the path through the Western Conference. Perkins said that's a "lazy ass take."

"This organization is not the old New York Knicks," Perkins said. "They are trending in the right direction."

The Knicks lead the Pacers 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals, and Stephen A. Smith is praying they don't screw it up.

(Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports)

And that's when Smith lost his ever-loving mind — arguing that, with James Dolan as the owner of the organization, everything could go wrong at any given moment.

"That is our experience in New York City. You don't get to sit up in gloss over that," Smith began.

The longtime ESPN host then escalated to an all-out enraged scream as he reminded Perkins of the fact that he hasn't spent any time in New York. In fact, he was "kicking the Knicks' ass" as a member of the Boston Celtics. Perkins was not, "in the city, suffering like us," Smith continued.

"We're not sitting up here and saying these Knicks are a fluke. We're saying, 'Oh, my God, the path that you're on — the trajectory — please don't change," Smith explained.

And as a long-suffering Miami Dolphins fan who watches my team fall apart every December, I felt that in my soul.

"Please, Dolan, don't get in the way. Don't do something stupid. Don't sit up there and create the wrong headlines. Don't sit up there and discombobulate everything because your ego gets in the way of your basketball personnel," Smith pleaded. 

"Please don't let the business of Madison Square Garden infiltrate basketball operations and contaminate everything around them. That's what we're saying. You don't get to sit up there and come at us and talk about what we ain't supposed to be doing. We've been here suffering!"

The Knicks currently lead the Indiana Pacers 2-0 in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. But it sounds like Stephen A. Smith fully expects them to screw that up.