The New York Knicks and Richard Jefferson got into somewhat of a Twitter spat
Richard Jefferson publicly stated that the New York Knicks offered him a contract before he retired, and the Knicks tweeted saying that it wasn’t true.
Jefferson, a 17-year vet, stated that he chose to retire rather than playing for the Knicks. Jefferson averaged 12.6 points per game and shot 37 percent from the 3-point range throughout his career. He was well known for his ability to shoot from 3 at a consistent rate, and also played solid defense in his 17 years.
The Knicks are having another bad start to the year with a record of 4-13 through their first 17 games. They’re one of the youngest teams in the NBA and it’s showing on the court. They’re led by the trio of Marcus Morris Sr, Julius Randle, and the young RJ Barrett, in terms of points.
Mitchell Robinson is also an exciting young player that people should start noticing. The second-year man is averaging 9.5 points and 6.1 rebounds a game. If Robinson develops a consistent game in the post and can play both sides of the ball, look forward to him making big leaps for the Knicks in the coming years.
Jefferson made his controversial statements when commentating on the YES Network.
"Knicks? No, I'll retire. That's why I retired, they were the one team that offered me a job."
— ESPN (@espn) November 25, 2019
Richard Jefferson said he knew his time in the league was up when the Knicks were the only team that wanted him. pic.twitter.com/OnH2sYTOUE
This ultimately got the attention of the New York Knicks, as they tweeted this a day after Jefferson’s comments:
For clarification purposes, it is not true that the New York Knicks offered Richard Jefferson a contract in either the summer of 2018 or 2019.
— NY_KnicksPR (@NY_KnicksPR) November 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/Rjeff24/status/1199088813567610892
Jefferson was very openly scrutinizing the New York Knicks franchise because of their struggles throughout the years. After the Knicks tweeted that it wasn’t true, Jefferson received a lot of backlash on Twitter. He continued on to tweet and make a joke out of his comments in an attempt to retract his claims and reduce the hate coming his way.
LeBron James, Jefferson’s teammate from 2015-17, also took part in the Twitter clash between the Knicks and Jefferson.
https://twitter.com/KingJames/status/1199113845861765121
They’re still very good friends and have remained close ever since their Cleveland days. James and Jefferson won a championship together in 2016 after coming back from a 3-1 deficit to defeat the Golden State Warriors.
Although this might of been Richard Jefferson just trying to bring more attention his way, we can all agree that we got a good laugh from all of this.