One young NBA phenom is taking some time to hit back at another.
RJ Barrett and the New York Knicks faced off against Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves last week. The Knicks lost by one point when Barrett missed a potential game-winning shot at the buzzer. After the game, Edwards spoke candidly about how happy he was to see Barrett, instead of Knicks teammate Julius Randle, taking the final shot.
“Try not to let Randle catch the ball, we’re gonna make somebody else beat us,” said Edwards. “Gladly, RJ Barrett caught it. If he would’ve made the shot, we would’ve lived with it. That’s who we want taking the shot. We don’t want anybody else taking it.”
Barrett responded to Edwards’ shade by tweeting a laughing face emoji.
— Rj Barrett (@RjBarrett6) April 1, 2021
The 20-year-old Knicks star spoke further on Edwards’ comments Monday.
“I thought it was funny,” said Barrett, per the New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy. “I don’t usually tweet. I don’t know what it was about this one. I felt like this one was an OK scenario to laugh at.
“Oh I’m very confident,” he added about his next opportunity. “I’m very confident, I can’t wait for the next one.”
Randle, an All-Star this year, is the Knicks’ leading scorer, so getting the ball out of his hands was a definite win for the Wolves. Barrett is also a fairly shaky shooter with a 42.3 field goal percentage for his career. But it is still rare for a player to so openly diss another player’s shooting ability like that.
The No. 1 overall pick Edwards has already won plenty of fans in his rookie season with how real he keeps it. But the flip side of that is that it can easily lead to beef like the one that may be brewing here between him and Barrett.
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