The NBA world blew up Thursday afternoon, with reports that New York Knicks’ star Kristaps Porzingis was unhappy quickly followed by the news that he was traded to the Dallas Mavericks (along with Tim Hardaway Jr. and Courtney Lee, for Dennis Smith Jr., DeAndre Jordan, Wesley Matthews and “draft compensation”). And as usual for big NBA moves, this led to some incredible Twitter commentary. Here are a dozen of the best tweets around it, organized according to theme.
NBA players weighing in: This sparked commentary from everyone from the Sixers’ Joel Embiid to the Knicks’ own Kevin Knox.
Lololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololololo
— Joel Embiid (@JoelEmbiid) January 31, 2019
When you're the only player left on the Knicks https://t.co/esC7iaYfsw
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) January 31, 2019
Crushed Knicks’ fans: Unsurprisingly, plenty of Knicks’ fans weren’t thrilled that the best player the team’s had in a long while is being traded away at age 23 largely in pursuit of cap space. Let’s check in on how this is going for the likes of Rolling Stone entertainment writer Alan Sepinwall (who used quite the Sopranos GIF), famed chef and author Eddie Huang, and ESPN’s Ariel Helwani:
https://twitter.com/sepinwall/status/1091080231996272642
Rooting for the @nyknicks is like going to Fyre Fest 82 days a year 😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰😰
— Eddie Huang (@MrEddieHuang) January 31, 2019
1/31/19. The day I stopped being a Knicks fan after 30 years. What a joke. It’s actually a relief. Can’t take this anymore.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) January 31, 2019
People bashing Jim Dolan: Shockingly, much of the blame here is being placed on Knicks’ owner Jim Dolan, who really, really cares what people think of him. Maybe the “Nothing will change until Dolan sells the team” FS1 subway ads (which led to Dolan personally calling Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch to have them removed) were right after all. At any rate, this led to a lot of funny tweets about Dolan:
https://twitter.com/JATayler/status/1091080119706402816
Bernie Sanders should call his new estate tax proposal the Dolan Tax
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 31, 2019
James Dolan’s angry ballad about not signing Kevin Durant is already written, he just doesn’t know it yet
— Bruce Arthur (@bruce_arthur) January 31, 2019
Thoughts on how Stephen A. Smith will take this: Who needs Smith’s actual reaction when Twitter can predict it?
Stephen A Smith is either gonna:
1) have a coronary on-air
2) show up drunk off Natty Ice and get belligerent to tape the show
3) weep and gibber unintelligibly
4) punch Max Kellerman dead in his snot-box
— Tweetgood Mac (@SnottieDrippen) January 31, 2019
A reference to baseball’s unsigned free agents:
The Knicks plan is to sign both Harper AND Machado.
— Dan Lewis (@DanDotLewis) January 31, 2019
A shot at the team’s summer plans: At least they’re using the cap space for something, right?
This Porzingis trade means the Knicks have enough money this offseason to pursue 2 or even 3 new PR people to explain why they didn’t sign Kevin Durant
— Jason O. Gilbert (@gilbertjasono) January 31, 2019
Another suggestion of how they could use that cap space:
https://twitter.com/NickMetallinos/status/1091086784556081153
A reference to Porzingis’ unicorn nickname: Nicely done here by SI’s Emma Baccellieri:
Unicorn Offered As Ritual Sacrifice On Altar Of Free Agency
— Emma Baccellieri (@emmabaccellieri) January 31, 2019
Adam Schefter joins the fun: ESPN NFL reporter Adam Schefter had a good line about how this buried the news that Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones isn’t offering head coach Jason Garrett a contract extension:
Jason Garrett is not believed to be a part of the package going from Dallas to New York for Kristaps Porzingis.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) January 31, 2019
A response to Joel Embiid: And last but not least, that Embiid tweet from earlier got some great responses, but this one particularly stood out.
— 𝐞-𝐦𝐚𝐧 🛸 (@eman2k_) January 31, 2019
Well played, Twitter.
[Photo from @2K_Howard on Twitter]
