Ex-NFL Player Calls Out Stephen A. Smith Following ESPN Analyst’s Explosive Rant Against President Donald Trump

Donald Trump became the first sitting president to attend an NBA Finals game when he was invited to Game 3 of the series pitting the New York Knicks against the San Antonio Spurs at Madison Square Garden on Monday evening.

The Knicks lost a scintillating contest 115-111 to the Spurs to head into Game 4 with a narrow 2-1 advantage, but the story centered around how President Trump’s presence threw a wrench in New Yorkers’ plans for the much-awaited Game 3 showdown.

Former NFL Tackle Blasts Stephen A. Smith Over Donald Trump Rant

During Tuesday’s segment of “First Take,” ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith went on a rant against the president for disrupting the Knicks’ winning run in the playoffs and for seemingly falling asleep during the game.

“Guess what he was doing during the game, ladies and gentlemen. Go online, look at the videos,” Smith said. “I’m not gonna accuse him of snoring because I wasn’t in earshot. But the brother wasn’t awake. If it was that important for you to be there, why did you look like you were asleep? Didn’t you call our former President Joe Biden ‘Sleepy Joe’?

“Well, what should we call you? ‘Cause you weren’t awake. Meanwhile, the New York Knicks were blowing Game 3, a team that you pretend to love. A team that you had season tickets to. A team that you supported through the years, you turned your back on them, for your own selfish, narcissistic motives.”

Former NFL nose tackle Breiden Fehoko sided with the president over Smith by posting a picture on X of the ESPN analyst playing a game on his phone during the NBA Finals last year. Fehoko captioned the picture:

“Wasn’t this you a year ago at the NBA finals? @stephenasmith” Fehoko wrote.

In a prior commentary before Game 3, Smith had revealed that he would blame the president should the Knicks lose the game. The Spurs snapped the Knicks’ spectacular 13-game playoff winning streak, which was the second-longest in the history of the league, just behind the all-conquering 2017 Golden State Warriors team that won 15 games.

The president’s attendance at the game necessitated the cancellation of a planned viewing party outside Madison Square Garden, which had become a staple of the Knicks’ dominant playoff run. In addition, fans had to adhere to multiple security checks to get into the venue, even as traffic around the venue was heavily disrupted.

Trump, who sat behind a specially constructed bulletproof window in Knicks owner James Dolan’s suite, was heavily booed by the fans inside The Garden when his face was shown on the Jumbotron during the national anthem.