Leaked audio from 2017 allegedly reveals LeBron James complaining to ref about Frank Ntilikina, who was backed up by Enes Freedom
LA Lakers superstar forward LeBron James and former 11-year NBA veteran big man Enes Freedom, formerly known as Enes Kanter, have had a long-running feud. This dates back to James’ days with the Cleveland Cavaliers when he got involved in an on-court scuffle with Freedom. The confrontation occurred during the first quarter of a 2017 regular-season game between James’ Cavs and Freedom’s New York Knicks. James first got involved in a brief altercation with then-Knicks guard Frank Ntilikina, with Freedom later going face-to-face with James to defend his teammate. Now, six years later, leaked audio from the play, which resulted in James receiving a technical foul, has surfaced.
In the leaked audio, James allegedly tells Freedom to get out of his face before complaining to referee Tony Brothers:
“Get your a** out of my face,” James said.
“Don’t mess with him, bro,” Freedom said.
“Get your a** out of my face,” James repeated.
“Don’t mess with him. Don’t mess with him,” Freedom repeated.
“He walked up on my face, Tony,” James told Brothers.
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LeBron James on 2017 altercation with Enes Freedom
As for LeBron James’ postgame reaction to his 2017 first-quarter altercation with Enes Freedom, he spoke about how he was just focused on securing a win:
“I knew we had another half,” James said.
“Didn't know that I was going to get snatched like that early in the third, but I felt if I got back in I could still make some plays to help our team win.”
James finished with a near triple-double with 23 points, nine rebounds, 12 assists, three blocks and two 3-pointers on 50.0% shooting. Meanwhile, the Cavs secured a 104-101 comeback win after outscoring the Knicks 43-25 in the fourth quarter.
As for Freedom, he called out James in his postgame interview and made it clear that he wasn’t afraid of the superstar forward:
“I don't care ... what you call yourself,” Freedom said.
“King, Queen, Princess, whatever you are. You know what, we're going to fight, and nobody out there (is) going to punk us.”
Freedom finished with 20 points, 16 rebounds and four assists on 60.0% shooting in the loss.
When told about Freedom’s comments, James then made light of them:
“I'm the King, my wife is the Queen and my daughter is the Princess,” James said.
“So, we got all three covered.”
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