In the first quarter of the Knicks-Cavaliers game Monday night, New York rookie Frank Ntilikina shoved LeBron James, then Enes Kanter rushed over to get into James’ face, as the Madison Square Garden crowd cheered.
And while NBA Twitter stirred excitedly over the fracas, NBA columnist Peter Vecsey, previously of the New York Post and now of his own Patreon site, sent a tweet he probably should have kept to himself.
Like Kanter is gonna 2B intimidated by LeBron, guy who stood up 2 Tayyip Erdogan. Imagine him being scared of a n*****who breathes the same air as him
— Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) November 14, 2017
Whether Vecsey realized it or not, you’re not going to get away with using that word as a white person, even if you use asterisks and even if you’re quoting Biggie Smalls.
Vecsey immediately faced a torrent of angry responses, but he appeared unfazed, even doubling down a bit.
Your problem, not mine
— Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) November 14, 2017
The Biggest!
— Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) November 14, 2017
So white people cant quote rap lyrics?!?! Cant sing them?!?! Bull shit!!
— Peter Vecsey (@PeterVecsey1) November 14, 2017
Here’s a sampling of the angry/disturbed/amused/befuddled response to Vecsey’s tweet:
what an uncomfortable way to find out peter vecsey can quote biggie.
— El Flaco (@bomani_jones) November 14, 2017
Uh maybe rethink this one.
— Russ Bengtson (@russbengtson) November 14, 2017
Peter Vecsey just tried to do a Jay Bilas and failed maybe as hard as anyone has ever failed on this website. Wow.
— Ken Carman (@KenCarman) November 14, 2017
I mean, the obvious put aside for a second, that song is a pretty deep cut for Peter Vecsey to be quoting from
— Clinton Yates (@clintonyates) November 14, 2017
No, I am not impressed with you knowing a Notorious B.I.G. lyric, or going to google to copy a lyric … on that clown stuff Peter Vecsey
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) November 14, 2017
— CJ (@tribefanCJ) November 14, 2017
@alidecastro pic.twitter.com/YlwANQQPUn
— eb834 (@elliottb24) November 14, 2017
Multiple users pointed out that Vecsey’s used five asterisks, not four, changing the commonly understood meaning of the word he was quoting.
Also, he got 5 stars, for the -er, instead of 4 stars, for the -a
— Npha (@DJNphared) November 14, 2017
the worst part about that Vecsey tweet is that there are 5 asterisks after the N and not four so he apparently thinks Biggie was dropping the hard -er
— Quitter Fredette (@HaroldBingo) November 14, 2017
Bruh used the six letter n-word. Nah, son. Gotta throw the whole Peter Vecsey away. https://t.co/4e3UihNt4a
— BLACK ADAM SCHEFTER (@B1ackSchefter) November 14, 2017
For what it’s worth, it seems as if Vecsey’s tweet has hit his bank account ever so slightly. The columnist had 247 Patreon supporters as of about 8:30 p.m. ET and is now down to 246 (as of 9:20). Then again, his tweet has more than 650 retweets and was briefly the talk of the sports internet, so on the theory that all publicity is good publicity, maybe he knew what he was doing.