Top 5 Recent NBA FIGHTS And BEEFS

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the Strictly B-ball podcast. Today, we got a special topic in honor of this week's fight between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart, which happened yesterday when we're recording this. Nolan and I are each going to be giving our top five most recent and current NBA fights and beefs. So Nolan, I'm going to let you start at number five. Who do you have? Okay, number five actually includes LeBron James. I'm curious to see if you're going to have this person on your top five or not, but I got LeBron James and Ennis Cantor. LeBron James and Ennis Cantor. I do not have that on my list. Okay. So they got into a scuffle in 2017. I believe he was talking to Frank Niakina and they got into a big fight and then, not into a big fight, but they were going back and forth with words, got all up in each other's face. And then afterwards, Ennis said, I don't care who he said this. And it wasn't a tweet. He said this, 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. LeBron kind of laughed it off. He said this was corny. And then I think he posted on Instagram and he said, hashtag his favorite, like my favorite playground. And he was talking about playing at Madison square garden. Kind of. Okay. It was coming out of the Knicks all together. Yeah. He's kind of coming out like the Knicks all together, but it was just kind of like a tweet, maybe directed at what he was saying. Okay. And after this, it was about two weeks after this, the Cavs played off against the heat, uh, November 28th, 2017. And LeBron got his first career ejection ever. Ennis Cantor tweeted out king of Cleveland, hashtag his favorite playground. And the king of Cleveland, meaning the ref that ejected him. He said he was the king of Cleveland. Okay. Hashtag his favorite playground. Mocking Instagram posts that he did. And then hashtag strive for greatness, kind of mocking the, the, the hashtags that he seems to always do, you know, Ennis Cantor is not afraid of no anybody. No. And he's kind of like a, he's he, I don't know if he took this specifically, um, personal, but he seems like a big kind of troll in the NBA where he'll get, he's not afraid to get, he's kind of like Joel and bead, but just like on a lesser scale. And then recently Cantor tweeted, criticizing his ties to Nike saying money over morals for the king and that he needs to educate himself when, when talking about like slave labor. Um, and like, that was just like a big bash at him. We don't need to get in that. But with that, there's obviously, you know, LeBron's not going to like that. And he just said, he, he's a guy that he won't give his energy to the two have kind of been going back and forth. Um, I think Cantor kind of made it personal or took it personally with that as of now. But before that it was just kind of like back and forth, kind of like banter. It seems like Cantor kind of cares about that one a little bit more than LeBron. Obviously LeBron is a, I guarantee you after Cantor tweeted that though, LeBron definitely took that personally. The Celtics were on to win the game. The Lakers lost LeBron takes things personally, but I still feel like cancer probably takes that one a little more seriously. That's an interesting one to start us off. Yeah, it is. Um, I did not have that on my list, but my number five is close to home for us. Carl Anthony Towns and not Joellen bead cat and Jimmy Butler. Oh my God. I think this one is stronger right now. Um, obviously the, the Jimmy Butler situation where he pretty much forced his way out of Minnesota because he didn't like the players he was with specifically Wiggins and cat. Right. Um, he blew up at a practice. Obviously the story is told that he beat the starters with the third stringers without scoring a bucket, but that kind of like fizzled out. I feel like for a while, but then this, uh, last May, like one of the last games of the year, um, they got into like a verbal fight. I don't know if you remember that, but it was, it wasn't like a physical fight, but like you could tell the beef was definitely still there. Um, I think they like kind of got the quotes where like Jimmy said, cat was soft. I think he said he's soft as baby ----. Um, was the quote they like got from him, like reading the lips and then cat responded by, you have to remember this one, like cat responded by telling Jimmy to go call Rachel Nichols. Yeah, that's funny. That's a, that's a, that's a, I think that's a great response because what happened is like the, the rumors of like them hooking up in the bubble. Right. And then, um, after that blow up at the Timberwolves practice, he called up Rachel Nichols to do a one-on-one interview so he could tell that story. So yeah, that's kind of, I think where it really started, like the Timberwolves players, like, wow, you just planned this and then called up Rachel Nichols to do the one-on-one, but that beef is definitely still there. So that's my number five. Definitely still there. Okay. Number four for me is Giannis and Harden. This is beef. This is not a specific fight where we're on the trend of beef right now. This, it basically started in 2019 when Giannis won MVP over Harden. Um, he won Harden won MVP in 2018, obviously it's, it's up for debate. Like Harden could have easily won that year. Another tremendous year. I think I definitely think he deserved it as well. And then Harden basically was kind of butthurt over that there wasn't anything too crazy that came out of, out of that. But then in 2020, Giannis said he wanted to pick Kemba Walker and Trae Young over James Harden for the all-star game during the all-star draft, which is a terrible pick, awful pick. And then they kind of made a joke about it. Like you don't want to pick the passer or the dribbler. I think they said the dribbler. And then he said, I want somebody that's going to pass me the ball. Definitely just seemed like a joke. I don't think Giannis win all-star MVP that year too. I think he did in Chicago. Yeah, he did. Yeah. So, I mean, he made the right pick. He wanted the guy that would pass. Yeah. I guess, I guess he did make the right pick. And then he also said offensively, we were just trying to find, this is talking about the all-star game, if I'm not mistaken. He said, offensively, we were just trying to find whoever James Harden was guarding. That's who, that's who we thought we'd have the opportunity to score on coming as defense, which we can, like Harden doesn't have a, it's, it's me. It's like media talk that Harden has bad defense. It's not, it's not the worst perimeter. He's improved. He doesn't have the worst perimeter defense. And then Harden went on to say something. He went on to say, uh, I wish I could just be seven feet and run and just dunk. That's the famous quote. Like that takes no skill at all. I've got to actually learn how to play basketball and have skill. You know, I'll, I'll take that any day. And then Giannis goes on to win the NBA finals. Then Giannis on to win the NBA finals. He kind of proved, I mean, he definitely was more so physically dominant in the interior, but he made his free 50 points. He made his closeout game, take him fadeaways. And not to mention he is picking up his three-point shot, his shot altogether. It's a lot more silky jumper. Oh yeah. And then, yeah, he kind of, he went on to Instagram live and someone asked him who's the hardest person you've ever guarded. And it kind of seemed like a joke. He said Harden. It definitely seemed like a joke. I think Harden is taking it personal, but Giannis is definitely the joking type. Yeah. That's my take on that one. I think all of those Giannis quotes are humor and the Harden ones are like him actually being salty about the beef. So I think Giannis is the winner of that one. I think Giannis is 100%. Especially Giannis is the one with the ring. Giannis is the one with that, with two MVPs. I think Giannis kind of said that the beef isn't real, but I think it's still real for Harden. That's a good, that's a good one. I didn't have that one. My number four is Kwame Brown versus a very long list of people. This one came out, I think it was like over the summer maybe, but Kwame Brown versus Steven Jackson, Matt Barnes, Gilbert Arenas, and Stephen A. Smith. Stephen A. Smith versus Kwame Brown has to be my favorite out of all those guys. That one was funny. It was, it was really Kwame Brown, like going back and forth with Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes, because they were like joking about Kwame Brown in their podcast. But the best one is definitely, I mean, we all remember the classic Stephen A. Smith, Kwame Brown rant, where he said he's a bonafide scrub. Yes, hilarious. And it took Kwame Brown like 20 years to get back at him. But now, like in the summer, he was like quoted saying that he's ready to fight Stephen A. Smith. So that's, that's a very fun thing to imagine, a Stephen A. Smith versus Kwame Brown fight. I mean, we get a lot of celebrity fights. Darren Williams is fighting Frank Gore coming up. Maybe we could get that one as like an undercard to like a Jake Paul fight or something. But that is my number four. Kwame Brown is just the best guy to start beef. And I don't think anybody knew because he was just silent for like 20 or 10 years. And now he's just going at everybody that has ever offended him. So that's probably my favorite, but I have it at number four. Okay. Number three for me is Scott Foster and CP3. CP3 has publicly called him out before. He used to be zero and 12 in playoff games when he was officiating. This is before the 2021 playoffs. And now he is three and 12, if I'm not mistaken, but it's a terrible record straight with Scott Foster. I may have been, it might've been like two. I'm not, I'm not a hundred percent sure, but they didn't win the NBA championship. Obviously his officiating didn't cause them to lose the championship, but terrible record with him. I think he's gone on to say things like he's been extremely rude and doesn't like his officiating style. And I just think it's absolutely hilarious how Chris Paul's beefing with an NBA ref. That was like one of the best like facts going into the playoffs, that record. Like I remember when the first time Scott Foster got mashed up with his son's game. I think he lost. I think he lost. He lost the first one, I think. Yeah. And then he won 13 and then he won. It was either two or three with Scott Foster officiating. So that one is probably the most unique one, a ref versus a player. I really liked that one. That's why I put it on town, just kind of developing one with one of the refs. I think it's like Ed Maloney or something. Cat has just been horrible with that, with that ref recently, but I like that beef. I didn't have that one either. So we got definitely different lists. Um, I'll move on to number three. This one is again, not a fight and it's also a player versus someone else. It's Ben Simmons versus Daryl Morey, the best standoff in the league right now. I think it's, I mean, it's pretty much Ben Simmons versus the entire Sixers organization, but this beef is going to be, it's just the worst combo because Ben Simmons is super stubborn about not playing for the Sixers. Yeah. Whether you agree or not, but it makes it even worse that Daryl Morey is the most stubborn GM in the league. He never wants to lose a trade. So he's not going to trade him for anything. I mean, we've seen the, they're awful. The value they think Ben Simmons has is just, Oh my gosh. And it's going to keep going down until he ends up playing. I don't think this is going to be resolved for a very long time. I would agree. And I even saw recently that Daryl Morey made a list of like all of the, any of the players that he would actually want. And it was only like 30 players long. And like the 30th best, best player in the NBA is like a player that might be better than like CJ McCollum or something like there's, he only wants star players for Ben Simmons. So that's insane. It's not going to happen. And this is just the most incredible standoff between a player and a president of basketball operations. It's a disaster, but yeah, that's my number three. I'm kind of torn with one and two. I don't actually have one. I don't have it like numbered off where it's just like, ah, I'm just kind of going off my gut here, but I'm going to go number two. I gotta go the Jokic family versus the Morris brothers. I have to. Okay. So giving some context of the situation, I'm assuming we all know, but Morris took a cheap shot at Jokic and then he was, and then Jokic responded with even a harder hit, kind of like elbowed the crap out of him. And then they started arguing. Mind you, Jokic has always been like a very kind of, he's not afraid to get in your face. He's not afraid to get aggressive. He loses his cool too for a second. He does for moments. And then he goes back to his more chill self, but he loses it. He definitely loses it, loses it. And then Morris's brother, it was, it was Marcus. Cause he did this to Markeith. So Marcus Morris tweeted out, waited till bro turned his back, noted with like a little emoji or whatever. And then the Jokic brothers responded with, you should leave. The Jokic brothers are hilarious. They're hilarious. You should leave this the way it is instead of publicly threatening our brother, exclamation point. They're pissed. They're pissed. Your brother made a dirty play first. If you want to make a step further, be sure we will be waiting for you, Jokic brothers. And then I have a tweet from Eric Goodman that says a reliable NBA source told me the Jokic brothers bought tickets today and are expected to be at the Nuggets Heat game in Miami on November 29th, which is November 29th. I cannot wait for that. I can't either. The other thing I love about this is that it's not even Markeith and Jokic, Nikolai Jokic. Have they even said anything? No, I don't think they have. It's just been the brothers of each. So funny. They're just defending it. So November 29th and that's. That's the same day when the, the Pistons play the. Yeah. I was really that same day. I think that's what you said. I think you said November 29th is the same. I'm looking it up right now. That will be November 28th. So back to back nights, we get to see, um, I guess that leads into my number two. Yours is Jokic and. My number two is LeBron versus Isaiah Stewart. Uh, it happened yesterday. We haven't seen the suspensions yet. I'm really intrigued to see, but this was just, I didn't see it live, but when I saw the replay of this, I was in shock. I was like, this was the most angry I've seen a player in a long time. Like my favorite part of this one. And as an entertainment level is the fact that Isaiah Stewart is gushing blood that just adds to it. If it was, if he wasn't gushing blood, it would, it would bring the entertainment level a little bit down. Yeah. He's just screaming. Like he's just insane. But then after going insane, he convinces everyone around him that he has just all of a sudden calmed completely down and then just pretends he's completely calm and just books it one more time. He's literally like, I saw someone make the comparison to like Derek Henry, like running over defenders. Like he was literally running people over. I know he was going through tackles to try to get LeBron and LeBron was so unfazed by it all. Oh, I know. And the fact that it's LeBron James, the face of the NBA, Isaiah Stewart is developing a pretty strong track record already in his second year in the league as one of the biggest hot heads in the NBA. And I think it's, it'll be fun to watch. I look to the, the YouTube video, I think had nearly 4 million views. That's a lot. That is a lot right away. There is a lot of people. There's a lot of attention on it right now. And it's obviously not the best. I can't wait. I cannot wait for that next game. Yeah. That's my, that's my number one. I just like, like you mentioned, I just, I just can't believe it. It was like, I feel like it was 20 people that tried to hold it back. And then he shoved probably at least five to 10 people like on the ground. Oh my gosh, it was insane. Cade was kind of there the whole time trying to calm him down, but nothing was working. Dwayne Casey, the coach was there. I don't know exactly, obviously the assistants and players are trying to hold them back, but that's my, that was my number one. I was just such in shock. We haven't seen, we haven't seen something like that in so long. There's something about Detroit. That game is in Detroit. Obviously there was the mouse in the palace. There's something about Detroit that brings it out of the, the most hotheaded players. But yeah, that's, we, we had, we had the same one in two. My number one was the Yokage brothers. I just love the Yokage brothers, the videos of them screaming. I mean, they've done it before. They're big guys too. Oh yeah. They're like, I think they're like, it's like Yokage, but not an NBA player. It's like a strong dude. Yeah. The more physical, they're more, more fit than, than Yokage, but they're not as fit there. I mean, they love, they're more muscular. Yokage is pretty, yeah, true. But yeah, that one is so funny. I think the Yokage brothers are just the funniest characters. Um, and I cannot wait for that back to back days. Yes. We're going to get to see these beefs. Maybe something else happens. Stewart and LeBron and Yokage brothers and too bad. Marcus Morris won't be in attendance for that game. Cause he'll probably have a game, but Yokage brothers just run on the court. Nah, I'm joking. I mean, you never know what happens, but yeah, that's, I think we got some good lists. We had some, we had some different takes, but, um, a lot of good NBA beefs right now already early in the season. So that's going to do it for today's episode. Thank you guys for watching. Make sure you subscribe, leave a comment, tell us what you think about these lists. We'll see you guys next time.