Enes Kanter took great, petty pleasure in LeBron James' first career ejection

Remember two weeks ago, when LeBron James worked himself into a war of words with the New York Knicks over their decision to draft Frank Ntilikina instead of Dennis Smith Jr.? Remember how Knicks big man Enes Kanter clapped back at the King, prompting LeBron to say of the Turkish center, “And for Enes Kanter, who always got something to say, I don’t know what’s wrong with him?”

Well, Enes had something else to say on Tuesday night.

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After James ran afoul of the officials at Quicken Loans Arena, earning the first ejection of his 15-year NBA career for throwing “an air punch directly at” referee Kane Fitzgerald before he “used vulgarity in [Fitzgerald’s] ear,” Kanter — watching from home as the Knicks get ready for a Wednesday night visit from the same Miami Heat team that James’ Cavs were annihilating — decided to take to Twitter to have a little fun at LeBron’s expense:

If Kanter’s tweet structure and hashtag choices look familiar to you, it’s probably because you remember that James celebrated the mammoth fourth-quarter comeback that delivered the Cavs a big win at Madison Square Garden — in a game during which he’d gotten into a bit of a dust-up with Kanter and Ntilikina — by proclaiming himself the King of New York in an Instagram post:

Evidently, Enes got sick of trying to pay his teammates to start a fight, so he decided he’d go pick one of his own.

Naturally, Kanter’s tweet “made its way around the Cleveland locker room” after the Cavs finished off their win over the Heat without James, according to Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. LeBron’s reaction? “James shrugged, shook his head and said Kanter is ‘always looking for attention.'”

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On one hand, those who’d note that Kanter’s not exactly in LeBron’s weight class when it come to accolades, acclaim and accomplishments, and that James has already summarily handled his business with Kanter and the Knicks, have a point. On the other: lighten up, Francis.

This is dumb and fun. Dismiss it if you must, enjoy it if you can, and curse the scheduling gods for making us wait until the final two games of the season until we can see the Cavs and Knicks line it up again. We can only hope those games will actually mean something for playoff positioning, because I can’t wait to see what kind of angst LeBron and Enes might have in story in a game that actually matters after five months of stewing.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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