After the Knicks were eliminated from the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, TNT’s Kenny Smith diagnosed the main issue with the franchise.
According to Smith, no matter who New York is playing, the Knicks will always have the second-best player on the court. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith and Chris “Mad Dog” Russo discussed the topic, too, and Russo agreed with the take.
Russo argued that Julius Randle is a “decent” player and that Jalen Brunson is a “very, very good” player. But he feels that neither are “great” players and that there are other great players in the Eastern Conference.
ESPN says Reggie Brown is better than Julius Randle & Jalen Brunson
Can't argue with that.
(by the way who is Reggie Brown) pic.twitter.com/6w32JmvMRw
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) December 7, 2023
He proceeded to list a few of the players who he considers “great” and that list included Jimmy Butler, Jayson Tatum, Reggie Brown and Joel Embiid.
Three of the players mentioned by Russo are indeed “great” players but it’s unclear who, exactly, he meant when he referenced Reggie Brown. There is no NBA player by that name.
Perhaps he was mixing up Boston’s Jaylen Brown with the former NFL player who was left temporarily paralyzed while making a tackle against the New York Jets in 1997.
Either way, this was an embarrassing mistake by Russo who appeared to read names directly off a paper and still couldn’t get it right.
