When LeBron James initially took a shot at Phil Jackson (not Knicks rookie Frank Ntilikina) by saying, "Dennis Smith Jr should be a Knick. That’s going to be some headlines," I knew he was right but I didn't think the comment was going to be the catalyst for 72 hours of awesome headlines and moments.
Here's a timeline of the best surprise beef involving the "King, Queen, Princess" since he and Deshawn Stevenson were going at it in the 2008 playoffs.
August 15th, 2017
LEBRON & KANTER BLACK-OPS PICK-UP GAME
During one of Chris Brickley's Black-Ops pick-up games in New York this past summer, Hoodie Melo, JR Smith and Kevin Durant cleared the court to let LeBron and Kanter go at it! I made up the second part of that sentence but I would love to believe LeBron was trash-talking and embarrassing Kanter during one of these games.
November 11th, 2017
LEBRON SAYS SMITH SHOULD BE A KNICK
After Dennis Smith Jr put up 21 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 threes, 2 steals and 2 blocks in just 30 minutes against the Cavs, LeBron had this to say during a postgame interview: “The Knicks passed on a really good one. Dallas got the diamond in the rough. He should be a Knick. That’s going to be some headlines but he should be a Knick. But Dallas is excited he didn’t go there. He’s an unbelievable talent, athleticism, he’s very poised to be his age. He can shoot the ball. He can penetrate and will only get better and better with the opportunity he’s given here to play. So Dallas got a good one. But I’ve known that.”
ENES KANTER RESPONDS ON TWITTER
Nope!!
We love what we got...
Thanks!!!https://t.co/eI6nTpghmQ— Enes Kanter (@Enes_Kanter) November 12, 2017
November 12th, 2017
ENES KANTER RESPONDS TO MEDIA
“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 said. “And I doesn’t matter if it’s LeBron or whoever it is, I can not 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."
PORZINGIS RESPONDS TO MEDIA
“I mean I don’t know why he made those comments, but all I can say is we love Frank, we’re happy with him,” Replied Porzingis, who is averaging an equally shocking 30 points per game this season. “He’s doing a great job. He’s playing great, and he’s doing what he’s supposed to. And I would not change Frank for anybody. Simple.”
FRANK NTILIKINA RESPONDS TO MEDIA
“I think in life people can think whatever they want,” Ntilikina said. “However, it’s not gonna affect us and me so whatever is said, whatever people think, me and the team are just focused on what we’re doing every day to improve and just to make us better.”
November 13th, 2017
LEBRON TAKES THE SUBWAY
The Cavs decided to take the NY subway on Monday morning and LeBron decided to pull out his camera and share the experience for his Uninterrupted channel. A guy behind LeBron didn't appreciate being filmed so he pushed the phone away and said, "can you not?" The video goes viral and the man becomes known as the "can you not" guy.
THE CAN YOU NOT GUY CALLS LEBRON A DICK
When Real Estate Agent/Comic James Michael Angelo realized he became the talk of the internet, he took to Facebook to tell his side of the story. So this morning I was on the train and out of nowhere a crowd of ENORMOUS basketball players got on the train and pretty much crushed me. The guy next to me kept nearly elbowing me in the face, I nicely asked him to watch my head. He wasn’t very apologetic. Then he decided to put me in his movie, and I hadn’t had my coffee yet. Thanks Lebron James. #unknowinggay
MICHAEL RAPAPORT CALLS LEBRON A CORNY MOTHERFUCKER
When Actor/director/author/die-hard Knicks fan/President of the King James hater club Michael Rapaport saw LeBron's video, he put out one of his own, roasting LeBron for filming people on the subway and acting like he was on a Disney ride.
LEBRON ON KANTER
During a very amusing practice interview, LeBron explained his comments about Smith were shots at Phil Jackson and had nothing to do with Ntilikina. He also had this to say about people "that go their pants in a bunch," like Kanter: "He always got something to say. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”
LEBRON & KANTER 1ST QUARTER SCUFFLE
Near the end of the first quarter of the Knicks and Cavs game, LeBron throws down an alley-oop dunk, bumps into Frank Ntilikina, then decides to stand in front of him. The rookie pushes LeBron out of his way and this leads to Kanter getting into LeBron's face.
The scuffle led to a pretty controversial tweet from unapologetic sports journalist and Biggie fan Peter Vecsey.
Like Kanter is gonna 2B intimidated by LeBron, guy who stood up 2 Tayyip Erdogan. Imagine him being scared of a n*****who breathes the same air as him — Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) November 14, 2017
Down by 23 in the second half, LeBron led the Cavs to the biggest comeback of the season, outscoring the Knicks 43-25 in the fourth quarter for a 104-101 victory. LeBron finished the game with 23 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds but since he pissed off so many New Yorkers, the stat guys took away one of LeBron's rebounds so he wouldn't have a triple-double. This is actually the second time LeBron has been robbed of a triple-double against the Knicks.
KANTER POSTGAME
An upset Kanter, who had a nice night with 20 points, a game-high 16 boards and 4 assists, had this to say about LeBron after the game: “I’ll tell you one thing, this team is really special. And you ain’t coming to my house, playing that water bottle flip game again. I don’t care who you are, what you call yourself, King, Queen, Princess, whatever you are. You know what, we’re going to fight. Ain’t nobody out there gonna punk us. So we’re just gonna go out there, play our game, and we’re just gonna get better and better every day.”
LEBRON POSTGAME
A smiling James, wearing an "All Good" hat, responded to Kanter by saying, “That’s corny. Well I’m the king, my wife is the queen and my daughter is the princess, so we got all three covered.”