Stephen A. Smith Responds To President Trump’s Postgame Jab: ‘You Wanna Talk About IQ’

Monday night’s championship NBA game turned into a political battle between two high-profile Knicks fans.

Prior to Game 3 in the Finals against the Spurs, ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith said he would blame President Trump if the Knicks lost due to the commander-in-chief’s presence at Madison Square Garden.

Outkick provided the president’s reaction, which included discounting Smith’s supposed presidential ambitions:

After attending Game 3 at Madison Square Garden, Trump spoke with reporters before boarding Air Force One to head back to Washington, D.C. Fox News Digital/OutKick asked Trump about Smith, who has repeatedly floated the idea of running for president, saying Trump would be responsible if the Knicks lost.

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“I think he’s a nice guy, but you need a certain aptitude to run for president,” Trump said. “You need a high IQ. I’m not sure that Stephen has that. I don’t think he does, actually.”

Alrighty, then.

That was Trump, after watching the Knicks lose at Madison Square Garden, responding to one of ESPN’s biggest stars suggesting his presence could be responsible for the result.

The Spurs beat the Knicks, 115-111, in Game 3 on Monday night, cutting New York’s series lead to 2-1. It put a damper on the first NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden since 1999, when the Tim Duncan-led Spurs beat the Knicks in Game 5 to win the series and the title.

The feud fueled some of the social media discussion after the game:

He is right he isn’t even good when he talks about sports and that’s what he gets paid for. He gets paid to give his opinion about something he never did

— Jon (@Jon3by) June 9, 2026

He didn’t mock Smith, he was informed that Smith was potentially planning to run for President in 2028, Trump simply answered truthfully.

— Steven Kerwin (@StevenKerwin) June 9, 2026

Here’s a clip of Trump’s remarks:

Reporter: Stephen A. Smith said he would blame you if the Knicks lost tonight how do you respond

Donald Trump: I think he's a nice guy but you need a certain aptitude to run for president. You need a high IQ, I don't really think Stephen A Smith has that

LLLMMFFAAOOOOOOOO pic.twitter.com/8nodMdflUh

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) June 9, 2026

And Smith couldn’t resist contributing even more, as Fox News reported:

“You wanna talk about IQ, I could say I could put my IQ against yours any day of the week. I could go one better. I can ask you why you’ve been running from me for the last year since I wanted to talk to you. I could ask you to debate me since you think you’re that dude. We can go a myriad of ways with all of this.”

Smith said he did appreciate Trump calling him a “nice guy.”

So, there’s that, at least.

And here’s that clip:

Stephen A Smith responds to Donald Trump calling him a low IQ individual on First Take:

“You wanna talk about IQ, I could say I could put my IQ against yours, I got something even better I could ask you why you been running from me for the past year since I asked you to talk to… https://t.co/iI1DpLjkRb pic.twitter.com/Edon6R1fzF

— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod 🇸🇴 (@big_business_) June 9, 2026