Enes Kanter And Jared Dudley Gave Us A Surprising Contender For NBA Beef Of The Year

Friday night gave us what might go down as the most fascinating beef in the NBA this season. No, it had nothing to do with Kevin Love bending over and putting the ball in Isaiah Thomas’ gut, further proving that there is something up with the two. And no, it had nothing to do with the longstanding rivalry between players and officials.

In one corner, we have Enes Kanter, the New York Knicks’ outspoken big man who has never backed down from anybody. In the other, we have Jared Dudley, a grizzled veteran on the Phoenix Suns who is willing to call out anything that he finds out of line. LET’S GET IT ON.

Things started during the game due to an altercation between Kanter and Devin Booker, who drove to the rim and got a shot blocked by the Knicks’ center. Kanter made sure to let Booker know, and the Suns’ guard shoved him in response, earning an ejection.

New York ended up earning a 107-85 win, one in which Kanter had 20 points and 10 rebounds. Because he was feeling himself after the game, Kanter hopped onto Twitter and sent out this tweet.

This really rubbed Dudley the wrong way, and the vet decided to stick up for the Suns’ young leader by calling Kanter a fake tough guy.

To the surprise of no one, Kanter was not happy with this, so he decided to respond with some trash talk regarding how Dudley looks 11 years into his NBA career.

Calling out the way someone looks can be something of a low blow, so Dudley thought it would be fun to bust out a haymaker or two about how the rest of the league views Kanter.

Things settled down after that, and on Saturday morning, Kanter decided to wish everyone a good weekend.

I have to admit, at the beginning of the season, I did not expect Dudley and Kanter to be at the top of the list of the league’s best Twitter fights. It makes some sense — both are outspoken dudes who don’t take crap from anyone — but this was still wildly entertaining and something of a surprise.