ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith raised the stakes in his feud with Donald Trump on Tuesday by challenging the president to a head-to-head debate.
The latest salvo came after Smith blamed the New York Knicks’ Game 3 loss in the NBA Finals on the circus surrounding Trump’s appearance at Madison Square Garden, a criticism that prompted the president to dismiss the sports commentator as “low IQ.”
Appearing on Laura Coates’ CNN show, Smith said he’d gladly settle the dispute with Trump face-to-face.
“If Trump really, really wants to get down to the nitty gritty and really wants to challenge me about my IQ, I welcome a sit-down with him,” he told Coates.
“I welcome him on the debate stage,” continued Smith, a rumored potential presidential candidate, before noting the president has “joked around about circumventing the 22nd amendment and running for a third term.”
“I will be happy to show up against President Trump,” Smith added. “Since you think that my IQ is questionable, you want to find out, want some? Come get some. I’ll show up.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Smith doubled down on his claim that Trump’s presence at Madison Square Garden derailed the Knicks’ momentum. He also welcomed the president’s reported decision not to attend Game 4 of the Finals.
“If he’s not going to show up to game four, thank you very much for not being hard-headed this time and listening, because you disrupted the mojo that the New York Knicks fan base was building for this team to come home to,” he said.
Smith argued that Trump, whom he described as a “lifelong New York Knicks fan,” should have been “highly sensitive to that 6 to 7,000 people having to be removed or displaced, not allowed to have the watch parties outside of Madison Square Garden with that fervor, that momentum, that vibe that has been unseen by a New York Knicks fan base in decades.”
“The Knicks had won 13 straight playoff games and it got ruined the moment Donald Trump showed up,” he added.
