Obi Toppin’s frustration with what mostly has been a minor role with the Knicks reportedly boiled over into a heated exchange with head coach Tom Thibodeau during their second-round loss to the Heat.
The former lottery pick, who is being dangled as a trade chip by the Knicks as a possible way to obtain a selection in Thursday’s NBA draft, complained about not playing in the second half of Game 4 in Miami.
An “intense verbal altercation” ensued between Toppin and Thibodeau immediately after the game “and spilled into the [team’s] postgame meeting” in the visiting locker room at Kaseya Center, according to The Athletic.
The Post had witnessed an angry Toppin yelling at someone and being calmed down by teammates Julius Randle and Josh Hart, with Evan Fournier also nearby, in the hallway after the game, although it was unclear who he was upset with at the time.
Randle and Hart declined comment on the incident after the game, and Toppin did not speak with the media for the remainder of the series.
Toppin had started Game 1 against the Heat, scoring 18 points with eight rebounds in 31 minutes with Randle sidelined with an ankle injury.
But the Brooklyn native played only six minutes in the Game 4 defeat — and not at all in the second half.
Toppin and Thibodeau met the next day to clear the air, according to the report, and the third-year forward logged 12 minutes in each of the final two games of the series.
The 25-year-old Toppin was the eighth overall selection in the 2020 draft out of Dayton, but he has averaged just 14.7 minutes per game over 201 appearances in his first three seasons with the Knicks.
He mostly has served as the team’s backup power forward behind Randle, who was named to the All-NBA second team in 2021 and to the third team in 2023.
Toppin, the 2022 NBA Slam Dunk champion, is eligible for a contract extension this summer, but he could be sent away in a trade for a late first-round pick in Thursday’s draft or as part of a package to obtain an established star later this summer.
The Knicks own 10 first-round picks through 2029, but they currently have no selections in either of the two rounds on Thursday, having dealt their first-round choice to the Trail Blazers in the Josh Hart deadline deal in February.
The Mavericks also tanked to miss the playoffs and the play-in tournament at the end of the regular season, thereby retaining a top-10 protected first-round pick that otherwise would have conveyed to the Knicks from the 2019 Kristaps Porzingis trade.