Stephen A. Smith trumpeting his own celebrity and influence to minimize his beloved team — “I am a bigger star than most of the New York Knicks,” he boasted earlier this month — was typically egotistical and typically antagonistic.

It also was correct.

The ESPN shouter boasts nearly 5 million Instagram followers and another 6 million on Twitter. The Knicks do not have one player who eclipses one million on either social network.

The Knicks, up to eight wins in a row and third place in the East, have been building their most promising team in at least a decade through solid drafting (Mitchell Robinson, Quentin Grimes), through savvy free-agent pickups (Donte DiVincenzo, Isaiah Hartenstein) and trade additions (Josh Hart, OG Anunoby) and by identifying talented players who could make the leap into something more (Julius Randle, Jalen Brunson).