LeBron’s talk about Frank Ntilikina leads to on-court spat with Enes Kanter
November 14, 2017 by admin
Filed under Latest Lingerie News
NEW YORK — The message embroidered on the front of LeBron James‘ baseball cap he wore after the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 104-101 comeback victory over the New York Knicks on Monday night summed up the game — and his talk — perfectly.
“All good,” the cap read in uppercase letters, followed by another line of text underneath: “Never better.”
Sure, the Cavs have been better before — they’re currently 7-7 on the season, with the Knicks win giving them their first winning streak since starting the season 2-0. And James, while still dominating the sport, probably peaked as an individual player several years ago.
But the drama between Cleveland and its Eastern Conference counterpart in New York? That may very well be unrivaled in the two teams’ shared history after all the off-court drama the past several days.
With Phil Jackson resigning as team president in June, it seemed as if James lost the target of his Knicks-based ire. That is, until New York big man Enes Kanter stepped in to fill the void.
After Monday’s game, James couldn’t resist getting in another shot at Jackson before the night was over.
“They’re playing some good basketball,” James said of the Knicks. “I think Jeff, the coach, Jeff Hornacek is finally — with the release of the old fella, he’s finally allowed to implement what he wants to do on the team and he’s showing it’s very effective.”
The “old fella” he was referring to is the 72-year-old Jackson. James flashed a smile before he said it.
As for Ntilikina, he finished with seven points, three rebounds, two assists and six steals in 25 minutes off the bench, becoming the first Knicks rookie since Mark Jackson in 1987 to swipe more than five steals in a game.
“That’s good,” Hornacek said. “A young kid to stand up to the best player in the league. So I was happy for Frank to get an opportunity to get out there and play and show him, yeah, you can say whatever you want but I’m going to still be here and be here for many years. Then you had his teammates backing him up. So that was great.”
Ntilikina shrugged off the contact he made with James.
“He was in my way to get the ball, to get the ball out of bounds,” Ntilikina said. “It could have been anyone, so I just pushed him to get the ball in. He was in my way. It could have been anyone.”
“I don’t care who you are. What do you call yourself, ‘King,’ ‘Queen,’ ‘Princess,’ whatever you are. We’re going to fight. Nobody out there is going to punk us. We went out there and played our game. We’re going to go out there and get better every day”
Enes Kanter on LeBron James
James explained his comment about Smith Jr. being a missed pick by the Knicks was a critique meant for Jackson and that he wasn’t “throwing shade at Frank at all.” Jackson fell out of favor with James last season when he referred to James’ business associates as a “posse” in an interview with ESPN. James expressed that the term had a racial connotation behind it.
Kanter only focused on how James’ words affected Ntilikina.
“I don’t care who, I just cannot let anyone disrespect my family like that, because when I play for an organization, I see my teammates and that organization as like a family,” Kanter told reporters Sunday. “And it doesn’t matter if it’s LeBron or whoever it is, I cannot just let him disrespect him like that. The coaches, the GMs, the president, this organization knows what they’re doing. … I mean, come on. That’s a rookie. You cannot just say anything like that about him.”
The chippy play between both teams continued in the second quarter when New York’s Kyle O’Quinn fouled Green in transition and landed hard on the Cavs forward. Injured Cleveland guard Isaiah Thomas was so fired up by the contact he received a technical foul for his reaction on the bench. Dwyane Wade was also T’d up with 4:22 to play in the second quarter.
The Cavs amassed more technical fouls (3) than made 3-pointers (2) in the first half and fell down by as many as 23 points before mounting their comeback.
“It was a little frustration setting in and I just told the guys, ‘Stop feeling sorry for ourselves. Let’s just play basketball. We had some good looks. Just continue to be good defensively and we’ll win this game,’” said Cavs coach Tyronn Lue. “So coming out in the third quarter it was kind of shaky, but I thought towards the end of the third quarter and the fourth quarter, it really got better.”
