![Chris Russo spoils Stephen A. Smith’s Knicks excitement: Mikal Bridges ‘not the missing piece’](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/newspress-collage-qxeuoszr3-1719415990016.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1719401655&w=1024)
Chris Russo spoils Stephen A. Smith’s Knicks excitement: Mikal Bridges ‘not the missing piece’
NY Post
Chris Russo wasn’t just going to let Stephen A. Smith enjoy the blockbuster move made by the Knicks on Tuesday night.
Appearing Wednesday morning on ESPN’s “First Take” with Smith and NBA insider Brian Windhorst, Russo diminished the Knicks’ stunning trade for Mikal Bridges, stating how the Nets forward “is not the missing piece” to capturing a championship.
“You want me to go put cold water on this thing, Brian?” Russo playfully questioned before his diatribe.
“Oh my God, take it easy,” he continued. “This is not Howard Komives for Dave DeBusschere. … I mean, he is not the missing piece to win a championship. Does he make the Knicks marginally better? Absolutely.”
Russo later called Bridges a “nice” player but implied he wasn’t a “linchpin” in Brooklyn.
“Before you sit there and tell me that he’s going to score 24 a game and get them real close to Boston, put them ahead of Indiana…” Russo added before being interrupted by both Smith and host Molly Qerim.
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On one level, it’s hard to shake this part of it from your mind. Think about how many times you and your best friends from college talked at the tail ends of after-hours parties about putting enough scratch together a few years after graduation to maybe, someday soon, rent a house down the Jersey shore or out in the Hamptons for a week.