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ESPN Analyst Calls for Knicks Star to Pause Podcast

One ESPN analyst is calling for a couple of New York Knicks stars to follow in the footsteps of Paul George.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Jan 21, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; New York Knicks guards Josh Hart (3) and Jalen Brunson (11) at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
Jan 21, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; New York Knicks guards Josh Hart (3) and Jalen Brunson (11) at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images / Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
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ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins is calling for the New York Knicks "Roommates" to be temporarily evicted.

Hours before the Knicks hit the Worldwide Leader's airwaves to face Philadelphia 76ers (7 p.m. ET, ESPN/MSG), Perkins called for Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart to pause their lauded web series, the "Roommates Show" as he previewed the Atlantic Division showdown.

"I feel like Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart ... need to take a break," Perkins said on Wednesday's edition of "NBA Today." "If you're trying to go out there and honestly compete for an NBA championship, that should be your only goal. Anything else outside of that is a distraction."

"Guys need to keep the main thing the main thing. When you have an opportunity to win a championship, keep the main thing the main thing. Everything else can wait."

The discussion around athlete podcasts centered on the decision of Wednesday opponent Paul George: with the 76ers reeling, the first-year Philadelphian announced that he would pause "Podcast P," his own popular web series, to focus on the rest of the season.

Philadelphia (20-37) enters Wednesday's game as losers of each of its last eight games and has fallen to 12th in the Eastern Conference, two-and-a-half games behind Chicago for the fourth and final spot in the Play-In Tournament. George was one of several high-profile offseason additions the Sixers made in an effort to end their 23-year drought of Eastern Conference Final appearances, the fourth longest in the NBA behind Washington, Charlotte, and the Knicks.

Even with the supposed distractions of the "Roommates Show," Brunson and Hart have helped propel the Knicks to the third spot on the current Eastern Conference leaderboard. Last weekend, however, offered a somber reality check in the wake of back-to-back one-sided losses to league leaders from Cleveland and Boston. The Knicks are winless in seven tries against Boston, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City so far this season, which has served as a major counter to their championship case.

Brunson and Hart previously acknowledged that they nearly shut down the "Roommates Show" before it ever truly started thanks to struggles on the floor, noting that the Knicks were in the midst of a losing streak when they posted their first episode in February 2023.

"We knew the pod was a thing," Brunson said in a September episode of "Roommates." "We knew about it and I think we had a run where we weren't playing as well. So me and Josh contemplated like, yo, we shouldn't do this ... I think we were on a three or four-game losing streak when we started the podcast."

"People were like stop the podcast, stop the podcast. We were just like you know what? We've got to do what we got to do. It turned out to be a hit both on and off the court."

Brunson and Hart co-host "Roommates Show," which plays off their friendship established at Villanova University, with mutual friend and entrepreneur Matt Hillman. They have welcomed numerous guests from the sports and entertainment world, including notable faces familiar to Knicks fans, such as Mike Breen, Mikal Bridges, Donte DiVincenzo, Walt "Clyde" Frazier, and even Brunson and Hart's head coach Tom Thibodeau.


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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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