VIDEO: Of Course the Knicks Sent a Brand Manager to Appear on 'First Take' and Somehow Blew it

The New York Knicks might be one of the worst franchises in the league in terms of their on-court product, reputation, and upper management structure, but at least they have a killer marketing team? Well, not exactly. Steve Stoute, the former CEO of United Masters who is now serving as a brand consultant with the Knicks, went on ESPN's First Take to educate Knick fans Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman on how the team can get back to being a marquee franchise. In doing so, he inadvertently called some of what James Dolan and the Knicks have done in the past "wrong."

All he had to do was talk glowingly about the Knicks and his plan to make them relevant again, and he messed it up. How?

Stoute doesn't lack confidence about his power with brands, as he claims he can have the same impact on the Knicks as Drake did on the Toronto Raptors.

Let's be kind to Stoute and say that isn't going to happen.

Not even a few hours after the interview aired, the Knicks already put out a press release that chastised Stoute for some of the remarks he made, saying he "does not speak for New York Knicks personnel and basketball operations."

Kevin Durant claims he joined the Brooklyn Nets in part because the Knicks weren't "cool." If the Knicks' master plan to get hip was to send a guy unknown to the general public onto First Take to talk about the failures of the past, it has fallen at the first hurdle.