Brooklyn Nets power forward Reggie Evans said Thursday he never downplayed the Miami Heat’s championship during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, and his comments were blown out of proportion.
Prior to Wednesday night’s 105-85 loss to the Heat, Evans dismissed the Heat’s title, telling the New York Daily News: “It doesn’t prove nothing. That was a lockout season.”
“Well, I didn’t say it didn’t prove anything. Those were not my exact words,” Evans said during an interview on SiriusXM radio’s “Off the Dribble” show. “I just said they won a championship in a lockout season. That’s what I said. So I never downplayed it or nothing, I just said they won a championship. That was really about it. I guess people just took it out of proportion.”
Evans later said: “One thing about me is like when I’m gonna talk about you, I’m pretty much gonna say it in your face. I’m not gonna go in the media and say it to the media. It was kind of hilarious to me because I think it was blown out of proportion because that’s not my DNA. I don’t throw jabs through Twitter or social media. I don’t do that type of work. It’s cool. I’m not dwelling over it. I just think it was taken way out of proportion and stuff like that.”
Evans also told the Daily News that defending superstar small forward LeBron James was no different than defending Joe Johnson or Andray Blatche. James then proceeded to score 24 points, grab nine rebounds and dish out seven assists, and ripped the Nets power forward, who went scoreless.
“You can’t just come out and say something like that versus a champion,” James said after the game. “No one knows what it takes unless you’ve done it. You can’t sit here and judge and talk about a team winning a championship unless you’ve done it. (Evans) hasn’t done it.”
James later said: “I’m not going to sit here and give Reggie Evans a lot of press, because that is what is going to happen for the next couple days.”
Evans left Barclays Center before he could be questioned about the game by reporters.
James said earlier Wednesday that he wasn’t too impressed by the Nets despite their recent turnaround under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo.
“(The Nets) just picked up the intensity level,” James said. “You can tell that they like to play for P.J. … It sucks that Avery (Johnson) had to take the hit of them not wanting to play at a high level.”
Johnson went 14-14 this season as Nets coach before being fired in late December.
Wednesday’s loss dropped the Nets to 13-5 under Carlesimo.
“That’s his opinion, so I’m not knocking it,” Evans said. “If that’s how he feels, cool.”
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