JR Smith: ‘I was blackballed from the NBA’
Despite all of that, it seems that JR Smith has been remembered only for his worst moment on the floor, as his Game 1 blunder in the 2018 NBA Finals seems to play in perpetuity. A moment that has followed J.R. throughout the rest of his tenure in Cleveland, throughout another championship—this time with the Lakers—and to his sudden exile from the league. Something he feels was deeper than just his play. When asked if he feels he was blackballed from the NBA, J.R. was as candid as he can be. “Yeah, 100 percent,” he says. “Anybody can sit here and tell you that that’s a fact.”
Source: Complex
More on this storyline
During that trip, J.R. noticed that Ray Allen was in his own pursuit of further education, taking classes online, and in doing so, Ray inspired J.R. to do the same. “I’ve never had a person—especially a quote, unquote, ‘peer,’ [with] whom I never have played on his team—in a day or two change how I think and how I look at my own self-worth.” “I can tell the true care he had for me. I could tell he really wanted to see me succeed regardless of [whether] it was basketball or something else; that’s something I take with me. Nobody has encouraged me like that,” Smith continued. -via Complex / September 3, 2022
Complex Sports: J.R. Smith says he, Jamal Crawford, Isaiah Thomas, Nick Young and Joe Johnson have been blackballed from the NBA. Link below for full #ComplexVolume story and interview with J.R. Smith. -via Twitter / September 3, 2022
You might not expect playing in the NBA to have too many similarities to Div. I NCAA golf, but J.R. Smith has found some. “Being a shooter, my touch [translates to golf],” the former NBA star told GOLF.com in the video you can watch above. “You have to be able to recreate some of the same shots over and over and over again. And have different shots in your arsenal.” -via GOLF.com / August 9, 2022
