Here’s hoping you didn’t expect the beef between LeBron James and Enes Kanter to subside anytime soon.
Because it’s not going to.
What started as LeBron taking jabs at Phil Jackson while indirectly marginalizing Frank Ntilikina has since evolved into an on-court scuffle and full-out war of words and Instagram posts and responses to those Instagram posts.
James posted the following, after all the other extracurricular stuff from the few days prior:
King of New York? Yeah, this won’t go over well. And it didn’t. At least not with Kanter.
He was quick to remind James that Kristaps Porzingis is the real royalty in The Big Apple, per ESPN.com’s Ian Begley:
Kanter, who had to be separated from James during a skirmish in Monday night’s loss to the Cavs, said James can’t hold that title.
“We’ve already got a king; it’s Kristaps Porzingis,” Kanter said at practice on Tuesday. “Sorry about that.”
Kanter delivered the line with a smile but quickly added that the Knicks needed to move on from the recent back-and-forth with James.
Porzingis himself responded as well when asked about it on ESPN 98.7 FM’s The Michael Kay Show (via Begley):
“I think the city disagrees,” Porzingis said.
Props to Kanter for again coming to the defense of his teammate. And he did it this time without trying to pass off female descriptors as an insult (which, by the way, remains totally and completely stupid).
As Kanter himself notes, though, the Knicks need to move on. They have other games to play. They don’t face the Cleveland Cavaliers again until April 9 and 11, at which time James will probably be on the sidelines, prepping for the playoffs by flipping some water bottles.
If the Knicks really fancy themselves one of this year’s biggest surprises, if they actually want to contend for a playoff spot in the wide-open Eastern Conference, they need to get over this squabbling and figure out how to never blow a 23-point lead again.
