After Enes Kanter and LeBron James went nose-to-nose, Peter Vecsey’s Twitter followers went palm to face.
The New York Post writer tweeted his take on a tense moment between the big man on the Knicks and the biggest star in basketball.
Vecsey, a 74-year-old white journalist, dropped a rap lyric from the Notorious B.I.G. in support of Knicks center Kanter, who, in addition to not backing down from the best player in the NBA, stood up to his country’s leader, Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogen.
The use of a racial slur in a tweet by a white man struck many as an instance of a journalist becoming the story. Though Vecsey relied on a black rapper’s words and not his own, and used asterisks to write out the offensive word, many questioned his standing to use such language, particularly in reference to an African-American icon.
Others came to Vecsey’s defense, saying the Queens-born, basketball aficionado has earned enough street credibility to quote a rapper using a racial epithet (all the while relying on those asterisks).
Despite Kanter’s 20 points and 16 rebounds, the LeBron-led Cavaliers prevailed over Vecsey’s hometown team 104-101.