Steve Stoute was recently appointed by the New York Knicks as an ambassador who could change their public image and give them a bit of a rebrand. For a long time, Knicks owner James Dolan has looked bad in the media and Stoute is trying to make the Knicks cool again. Yesterday, the music mogul went on First Take where he made some interesting comments about the team’s interim head coach, Mike Miller. In fact, Stoute implied that Miller would be fired and a new coach would come in next season.

In the aftermath of these comments, the Knicks issued a statement saying Stoute doesn’t reflect the views of the front office. On First Take today, Stephen A. Smith addressed the controversy and defended Stoute. As Smith explains in the clip below, Stoute was brought on by the Knicks to change the perception that James Dolan was running all of the basketball operations. Smith thinks Stoute was successful at doing that but once Dolan got involved with a statement, he essentially undermined his new employee.

The Knicks have been a bit of a disaster over the last few years so this latest controversy shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Regardless of how good Stoute is going to be at his job, there will always be someone standing in the way of progress. Of course, we’re talking about Dolan.