Stephen A. Smith Makes Ridiculous Claim About Knicks NBA Finals Chances

The New York Knicks just dropped back-to-back games in Los Angeles, losing to the Lakers and then the Clippers, and right on cue, another analyst showed up with a doomsday take. This time it was Stephen A. Smith, and his prediction might be the most extreme one yet.

The clip came from First Take's official X account, where Smith went on a full rant about the Knicks and their NBA Finals chances. He did not just criticize them; he buried them.

"The New York Knicks haven't been to the finals since 1999. And at the rate they're going right now, they ain't going back to the finals before 2049. This is what we're talking about right here. We're not understanding the severity of this moment."

Now, Smith is not entirely wrong about the Eastern Conference being softer this season. Jayson Tatum, Damian Lillard, and Tyrese Haliburton all went down with Achilles injuries before the year even got going. Smith explained exactly why he had the Knicks penciled in for a Finals run:

"At the rate they're going right now, they ain't going back to the Finals before 2049." 🤣

—@stephenasmith had this to say about his Knicks ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/ES6sHZmUkS
— First Take (@FirstTake) March 10, 2026

"The New York Knicks coming into this season, I had going to the NBA finals because Tatum was supposed to be out for the year with the Achilles tear. Damian Lillard was out with the Achilles tear and he wasn't going to be in Milwaukee. And Tyrese Halliburton, who had taken him out in back-to-back years, was out with an Achilles tear. So I'm looking at a depleted Eastern Conference. Orlando wasn't ready. Atlanta wasn't ready."

But here is the thing. The New York Knicks are 41-25 right now, on pace for 50 wins, and sitting third in the Eastern Conference. That is not a team drifting toward irrelevance. That is a team still finding itself under a brand new head coach in Mike Brown, with a reshuffled offense and a defense still building its identity.

Why Stephen A Smiths Knicks NBA Finals Prediction Does Not Add Up

Losses happen. Every contender goes through stretches where nothing clicks. What matters is whether the team is learning and building habits that hold up when the playoffs begin. The Knicks, for all their inconsistencies this season, are doing exactly that.

And that is the part people keep overlooking. The regular season and the playoffs are completely different animals. The pace changes, the schemes tighten, and one player getting hot can flip an entire series. Regular-season records do not win rings. Ask any team that cruised to 55 wins and got bounced in the second round.

Smith's frustration about the missed opportunity is fair. But jumping from "they have not peaked yet" to "see you in 2049" is a stretch. The Knicks have Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and a roster built to compete. They are not a finished product, but they are far from a lost cause.

Just days before losing to the Lakers and the Clippers, the Knicks went into Denver and dismantled the Nuggets by 39 points. That is not something a team heading toward irrelevance does.

The Finals drought is real. The urgency is real. But writing them off for another 23 years after one difficult stretch is the kind of hot take that does not age well.

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