New York Knicks swingman J.R. Smith is channeling Joe Namath as he readies for the upcoming NBA season.
According to ProBasketballTalk.com, Smith is "guaranteeing" an NBA title for the Knicks this season, much like Namath famously did and actually made good on back in 1969.
"I'm 100 percent sure," Smith told a crowd of kid golfers gathered at Chelsea Piers during a question and answer session when asked how certain he was the Knicks would strike paydirt in 2014. The line of questioning stemmed from the Knicks ongoing war of words with the Brooklyn Nets this off season over which team now owns New York.
Later when asked why he chose the Knicks over the Nets in 2012 when he came back from China to rejoin the NBA as a free agent, Smith told the crowd "the Nets weren't good; now they're still not good."
Smith, who is expected to be out until around Christmas following off season surgery on his left knee for a torn lateral meniscus, is banking that the team's acquisition of the likes Andrea Bargnani, Beno Udrih and rookie Tim Hardaway Jr. will be enough to get the Knicks over the top in a highly competitive Eastern Conference.
Led by Patrick Ewing, John Starks, Latrell Sprewell and Larry Johnson, the Knicks last made the NBA Finals during the 1998-99 lockout season and haven't won a title since 1972-73 season when a core of Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, Dave DeBusschere, Earl Monroe, Bill Bradley, Phil Jackson, Jerry Lucas and the recently deceased Dean Meminger led the franchise to a championship.
In.winning the league's Sixth Man of the Year Award last year, Smith averaged 18 points, five rebounds and three assists.
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