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Enes Kanter Warned by Ex-Teammate After Trolling LeBron James
January 21, 2018
A former teammate of New York Knicks big man Enes Kanter warned him not to mess with the King.
"One texted me just to say—I'm not going to say who—but he texted me, 'You're about to get 50 dropped on you, boy,'" Kanter said of a former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate, per Nick Friedell of ESPN.com. "I responded something back, but I'm not going to say what it is."
The warning came after Kanter trolled LeBron James with a tweet following Oklahoma City's 148-124 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday:
There has already been plenty of back-and-forth between Kanter and James this season, and things even got chippy on the court during a November matchup:
"I don't care who you are," Kanter said of James at the time, per Al Iannazzone of Newsday. "What do you call yourself? King, Queen, Princess. Whatever you are. We're going to fight. Nobody out there is going to punk us."
James responded, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN, "I'm the king, my wife is the queen and my daughter is the princess so we got all three covered."
There was even some apparent bad blood when James said the Knicks should have drafted Dallas Mavericks point guard Dennis Smith Jr., per Tim MacMahon of ESPN.com. While the Cavaliers' leader clarified it wasn't meant as a shot at Knicks rookie point guard Frank Ntilikina, per Ian Begley of ESPN.com, Kanter said, "We love what we got," on his Twitter account.
James specified he wasn't talking about Ntilikina for those "who just live in the box and for Enes Kanter who's always got something to say," per Begley.
Even with the history, Kanter offered some respect following his most recent tweet.
"I mess with him a lot, but obviously he's the best player in the league," per Friedell. "I respect the guy a lot. But I think right now they are struggling or whatever. I don't even think he's even thinking about what I tweet. I think he's worried about his team."
The Cavaliers are struggling considering they have dropped 10 of their last 14 and sit 29th in the league in defensive rating, per NBA.com. However, providing James—a four-time MVP and three-time champion—with additional motivation seems like it could backfire for Kanter.
James' next chance to make a statement on the court against Kanter and the Knicks comes April 9 at Madison Square Garden.