Knicks Stars Break Silence! Roommates Controversy Addressed in Explosive Interview
The New York Knicks’ landlord approves of what the team’s “Roommates” are up to.
Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart returned to the digital airwaves on the “Roommates Show” podcast with one of their most prominent guests yet, as they and co-host Matt Hillman were joined by Knicks owner James Dolan.
Brunson and Hart immediately addressed the latest controversy surrounding the “Roommates Show,” as the Dolan edition was their first since ESPN NBA analyst Kendrick Perkins called for the two to shut down the series for the rest of this season in the wake of an ugly record against the NBA’s top teams. Hart turned the topic to Dolan, who offered his official endorsement of the program.
“I mean, I don’t know, I thought it was fine,” Dolan said. “You guys are personalities, people want to know what you’re thinking. They see what you do. They want to hear what you think and what your take is. I think your fans love it … They want to identify with you. They hear you say something and they latch onto it.”
“It’s totally cool, as long as it doesn’t take away from practice, your threes, and your free throws,” Dolan told Hart, leading the latter to counter with the fact he is posting a career-best success rate at the foul line (79.2 percent entering Thursday play).
Brunson called the podcast a “different way to have [their] voices heard” and mentioned that episodes are often recorded before or after workout sessions whether he and Hart have practiced or not. Hillman acknowledged that media scrutiny has always hovered over the program but defended it by claiming it has given Brunson and Hart a way to “address it on their own terms.”
Hillman directly asked Brunson and Hart about Perkins’ analysis, which called for the duo to follow in the footsteps of Philadelphia 76ers star Paul George. As Philadelphia tries to claw its way back into the postseason conversation, George temporarily shuttered his well-received web series “Podcast P” and Perkins suggested a similar strategy after the Knicks dropped consecutive games against NBA leaders from Cleveland and Boston in the span of a single weekend.
“I’m going to say this: there are much worse things that we could be doing than having a podcast,” Brunson said after he was shown the Perkins clip. “There are a lot of things that go on that are much worse than sitting here and talking with you guys about stuff or whatever.”
Hillman even hinted that such complaints could be hypocritical, considering that the same commentators analyzing Brunson and Hart’s free time may well be the same who claim they need a rest from head coach massive workloads.
Brunson went to to lament the the idea that athletes are forever branded in a negative light if they stray even the slightest bit of their profession in a public setting, using fellow NBA star James Harden and Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray as examples.
“Remember everyone kept saying whenever the new ‘Call of Duty’ comes out, Kyler Murray is not locked in,” Brunson said, recalling the narrative of Murray being too concerned about video games rather than his profession of franchise quarterback. “Now he has that narrative on him whether it’s true or not. There are players like Harden, who’s known for going out, it’s a known thing.”
“No matter what you do, if it’s not your profession, someone’s going to be saying to you ‘you need to focus on your profession.'”
Despite the controversy, Brunson and Hart extended an open invitation for Perkins to come onto the program to explain his side of the story, with Brunson more than willing to refer to the former Boston Celtics center as “[his] guy.”
