Enes Freedom vs. LeBron James: History of feud between Celtics center and Lakers superstar

Gilbert McGregor

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Enes Freedom vs. LeBron James: History of feud between Celtics center and Lakers superstar image

Any time a LeBron James-led team faces a team whose roster includes Enes Freedom (formerly Kanter), the dynamic between the two instantly becomes a subplot.

Such will be the case on Tuesday night when James' Lakers host the Celtics and Freedom.

MORE: Why did Enes Kanter change his name to Enes Freedom?

When the two teams met a few weeks ago in Boston, Freedom shared photos of a pair of sneakers that featured James' likeness. Freedom would wear the sneakers in a win over the Lakers but following the game, James refused to give his energy to Freedom, saying that the Celtics big man should speak to him face-to-face.

Where did this originate? 

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Enes Freedom vs. LeBron James: Complete history of the feud

The beginning

As a member of the Cavaliers, James offered an opinion on then-Mavericks rookie Dennis Smith Jr., who was selected ninth overall in the 2017 NBA Draft — one pick after the Knicks' Frank Ntilikina. James would go as far as to say Smith "should be a Knick," a comment that elicited a response from Freedom.

James' comments weren't as random as they may seem given he and the Cavs were set to take on the Knicks that week. Since Knicks players understandably took exception to what LeBron had to say, he attempted to clear things up the morning of the game, saying "he wasn't throwing shade at Frank" but paying a compliment to Smith.

He continued, adding that it was "clarification for people who just live in a box and for Enes Kanter, who always got something to say … I don't know what's wrong with him." Fast forward a few hours and James, Freedom and Ntilikina were in the center of an on-court spat.

After the Cavs earned a comeback win, Freedom had more to say, referencing James and his teammates doing the bottle flip challenge in a blowout win at Madison Square Garden a season prior.

"You ain't coming to my house playing that water bottle flip game again. I don't care who you are — what do you call yourself? King, queen, princess? Whatever you are, you know what? We're going to fight. And nobody out there's going to punk us."

James called Freedom's comments "corny," saying "I'm the king, my wife's the queen and my daughter's the princess, so we got all three covered." For good measure, James posted a picture on Instagram with the caption "You're welcome.. (King) of NY," calling Madison Square Garden his favorite playground.

Freedom responded to James' post, saying New York already had a king … Kristaps Porzingis.

When the two teams met in New York in April, James shrugged off questions about Freedom during shootaround but during the game, wore a pair of Nike LeBron 15s that read "I'm King." 

No less than a month later did Kanter playfully challenge LeBron to prove he was the King of New York by signing with the Knicks as a free agent on July 1.

Ahead of the 2018-19 season, Freedom spoke on his self-proclaimed "trolling" of James, telling ESPN's Royce Young "I would do anything to take his focus away, distract him. People ask me, 'Does it work?' No it does not work. But I'm trying."

How did we get here?

How did things get to where they are today? It seemingly began with James' response to Daryl Morey's comments about Hong Kong.

He did not mention LeBron by name, but around the time James' comments made rounds, Freedom sent off a series of tweets, that read "Wow dude!" followed by "(shaking my head)" an emoji indicating disgust and this:

In January of 2020, Freedom acknowledged to the Boston Globe that "me and [LeBron] have a beef," before saying that James' opening of the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio inspired him to open a charter school in Oklahoma City.

MORE: What did Freedom say about LeBron's vaccine stance?

In October of 2021, Freedom appeared on CNN, where he expressed disappointment in James for not being a bigger vocal advocate for the COVID-19 vaccine, sharing the clip of his appearance on Twitter.

Weeks later, Freedom sent out a direct shot at Nike, mentioning its founder Phil Knight, James and Michael Jordan's Jordan Brand, and sharing a picture of custom Jordan sneakers bearing messages reading "modern day slavery" and "hypocrite Nike," among other things.

It was on Nov. 18 that Freedom shared images of the sneakers that featured James' likeness, including the message that read "Money over Morals for the 'King,'" to which James refused to give his energy to.

MORE: James responds to Kanter's latest criticism

Days later, Freedom would appear on Fox News to refute James' claim of how things transpired at TD Garden, adding that he would be willing to have "a very uncomfortable conversation" in an attempt to educate the Lakers superstar.

At the end of November, Freedom officially received United States citizenship, making the change of his surname official.

In an interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson, Freedom called receiving citizenship "the greatest day of my life," expressing his gratefulness by saying "people should feel really blessed and lucky to be in America because they love to criticize it but when you live in a country like Turkey or China or somewhere else, you will appreciate the freedoms you have here."

Freedom continued, adding that "I feel like they should just please keep their mouths shut and stop criticizing the greatest nation in the world."

Ahead of the second and final meeting with James and the Lakers, Freedom took to Twitter to call out 10-year veteran and current CBA star Jeremy Lin, who was born in Torrance, Calif. to Taiwanese parents.

As he did in the tweet towards James, Freedom again mentions the balance of morals and money.

It's unclear whether or not James and Freedom will have that face-to-face conversation when the Lakers meet the Celtics but history suggests something will come of this next meeting.

Gilbert McGregor

Gilbert McGregor Photo

Gilbert McGregor first joined The Sporting News in 2018 as a content producer for Global editions of NBA.com. Before covering the game, McGregor played basketball collegiately at Wake Forest, graduating with a Communication degree in 2016. McGregor began covering the NBA during the 2017-18 season and has been on hand for a number of league events.