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The Best NBA Social Media Beefs This Year

Our favorite moments of pettiness that went down this season.

Old NBA heads lament the fact that the league has gone soft and guys are too friendly with one another and don’t want to compete. But what is beef? According to the late great B.I.G.“Beef is when you need 2 gats to go to sleep.” Nah, we’re not here for any violence. These new dudes and young cats just handle their beef differently. As Drake says, “trigger fingers turn to Twitter fingers.” It’s how we handle beef in the social media age.

With Sacramento Kings rookie guard De’Aaron Fox claiming his phone was hacked when he tweeted some shade at fellow rookie Lonzo Ball and 76ers center Joel Embiid getting fined by the NBA for blasting an obscenity at LaVar Ball on Instagram, we figured now would be a good time to revisit the NBA’s best social media beefs from this past year.

  • Shaq vs. JaVale McGee

    NBA Hall of Famer and current NBA analyst for TNT Shaquille O’Neal and Warriors free agent big man JaVale McGee engaged in a vicious back and forth on Twitter during the season. The “beef” all started because of Shaq’s insistence on referring to JaVale as a dumb player, highlighted by all his appearances on Shaqtin a Fool. To be fair, for much of his pre-Warriors career, JaVale did all sorts of dumb things like scoring on his own basket and blatant goaltending violations. But McGee mostly avoided the dumb plays this season. No doubt due to playing with the high basketball IQ guys on Golden State. That didn’t stop Shaq from going in on McGee.

  • Winner: NBA champion JaVale McGee and his rattail. You can’t say these “new dudes” are soft and can’t take a joke, then threaten to get physical when they clap back. The beef was all good, and had Shaq ended it after saying McGee would always be remembered for Shaqtin a Fool, he’d be declared the winner. Once Shaq started threatening to slap McGee and get physical is when the beef got out of hand.

  • Rajon Rondo vs. Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade

    Remember this one? Nobody could’ve seen this coming (*sarcasm*). Rondo is a very headstrong point guard and can be difficult to play with. Butler and Wade probably thought the season would go a lot differently. The Bulls struggled to a .500 record and played the Celtics in round 1 of the playoffs. Bulls went up 2-0 and then Rondo got hurt and the Celtics won the next four straight. Before that surprise playoff start, the three veterans were not all on the same page.

    After a regular season loss, Butler said: “If you don’t come in motherf***ing pissed off every game, any game, if you’re not pissed off that you lost, something is wrong. This is your job. This is what you’re supposed to love to do.”

    Rondo took to Instagram to respond.

  • Winner: NBA fans that don’t root for the Bulls. This happened before the all-star break and we needed some drama. The Warriors were clearly the best team in the league and the Cavs were not yet in full gear. If you are a Bulls fan this was a harbinger of things to come. Butler is now on the Timberwolves; Rondo is a free agent you don’t want back, and Wade opted in to collect almost $30M. Now your team is rebuilding…

  • CJ McCollum vs. Chandler Parsons

    This was a good one. During a game this year, the Grizzlies' Chandler Parsons air-balled a 3-pointer against the Blazers. The Blazers official Twitter account sent out the following:

  • As a point of reference, the Blazers offered Parsons a max contract in the summer of 2016. Parsons declined and went with the Grizzlies. Parsons saw the tweet and responded with:

  • Blazers guard CJ McCollum saw the tweet and decided to get in on the action:

  • BURN!!!!

  • Winner: Parsons is correct; he technically hit the lottery by signing a max deal with the Grizzlies. But CJ is the winner because that response was so cold. Using somebody’s own joke (lottery) against them is an automatic win. Parsons trying to repurpose it again is a #fail.

  • De’Aaron Fox, Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons vs. Lonzo and LaVar Ball

    This one should really be "Everyone vs. LaVar Ball." But since LaVar doesn’t actually play, it has to be about Lonzo. The world is aware of LaVar Ball and his hoops playing sons. The braggadocio patriarch’s eldest son, Lonzo, was the number-two pick in June’s NBA Draft. LaVar has been telling us for the past 18 months how great his son is and will be. He will transform the culture of the UCLA Bruins and be drafted by the Lakers and be the next great player in the league. LaVar hasn’t been wrong so far. He has spoken this all into existence.

    But for whatever reason (I have some ideas) it’s rubbing people the wrong way. LaVar is continuing to write checks with his mouth that Lonzo has to cash with his play. LaVar’s boasting has definitely rubbed many players the wrong way, who are looking to take their frustration out on Lonzo.

    The 76ers’ young players were the first to “welcome” Lonzo to the NBA:

  • Lonzo was handling media interviews while Simmons and Embiid were tweeting, but were made aware of their comments and said:

  • Lonzo signed his deal with the Lakers, took to the practice courts and got ready for his Las Vegas summer league debut. His opening game was a dud, stats-wise. But if you watched the game you can see his elite court vision and passing ability.

    In his second game he recorded a triple-double. Funny thing is, the stats were better but his play was basically the same. His elite skills are obvious and areas where he will struggle (his shot) are also obvious.

    Lonzo was set to take the floor against the Kings on Monday and go head to head with De’Aaron Fox, another top rookie point guard who has a history with Ball. The two went head to head in college and Fox bested Ball in stats and team wins. Upon hearing Ball was sitting out of Monday’s match up, Fox tweeted the following:

  • This led many to speculate that Fox was saying SMH, can’t believe this guy is afraid to face me. Fox said his account was “hacked” and nobody is ducking anyone in summer league. Funny how everyone’s phone is hacked right after he or she tweets something controversial.

    Winner: LaVar Ball. Everything he said has come to fruition. The rest is on Lonzo. He has a huge target on his back because of his dad. Players are going to come extra hard at him. It will be baptism by fire. But if he comes through and holds his own, look out.

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