JR Smith has been making waves recently for his infamous blunder at the conclusion of Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals.
JR made an amazing play to grab the offensive rebound off of a George Hill missed free throw, and then, unbelievably, dribbled the ball out to end regulation. Then the Cavaliers lost the game in overtime. JR thought that his team was up by a point at the time, and was mistaken.
It was an unbelievable gaffe, but it was about as far from being out-of-character as it could have been for JR Smith. Both on and off of the court, JR has made headlines for incidents in which nobody would want to be associated.
Let’s start off with this infamous fight against the Knicks back in 2006 while JR was a member of the Nuggets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuG19cCslBM
It is hard to place the blame for this incident solely on JR; he was fouled hard.
JR has had multiple run-ins with the law as well. He once operated a scooter without a license and then failed to show up to court for the hearing.
And who could forget the infamous “pipe” incident on social media? For those unaware: a woman sent JR a Twitter DM saying she would be at his game that night. After a couple more texts, JR dropped the now-legendary line: “You trying to get the pipe?”
JR has had several interactions on social media like this—each and every one hilarious. Despite their hilarity, it is undeniable that most people would not want to be known for interacting with others this way.
JR was suspended for the first five games of the 2013-14 season for violating the NBA’s substance abuse policy (he had tested positive for marijuana).
That was just the beginning of a tumultuous and drama-filled season for JR.
In January 2014, for some reason he decided to untie Dwight Howard’s shoelace while teammate Amar’e Stoudemire was shooting free throws.
It was pretty funny. I distinctly remember enjoying that, and I laughed watching the video again just now.
But then, JR did it again that same week! He untied Shawn Marion’s shoelace while Dirk Nowitzki was at the line taking free throws in a Knick game against the Mavericks. While it was funny that time, too, he was fined and it made a lot of people mad.
In that same Rockets game where he untied Dwight Howard’s shoe, Smith made a bad play at the end of the game, like we just saw in the Finals. This time though, he shot the ball when he should not have, and it cost the Knicks the game. I suppose he learned his lesson there, but maybe too well, as we saw it backfire tremendously in the Finals last week.
I had forgotten that was the same game!
Skipping ahead to more recent news, this year it was reported that he threw soup at an assistant coach.
JR Smith was suspended for throwing a bowl of soup at Cavs assistant coach Damon Jones, sources tell @mcten & me: https://t.co/OYA1xAW7t5
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) March 2, 2018
You can’t make this up.
And now, we have possibly the biggest mental blunder in NBA history, with this play in the NBA Finals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imMSjrwsRaM
The reason Smith has stayed around the NBA so long despite these constant flare-ups of misjudgment is obvious: he is incredibly talented.
JR obviously works hard; you cannot make it to the NBA without working hard. But on the NBA-player scale, is he a hard-worker? I suppose we do not really know for sure, but my guess would be he is not. He is supremely talented and just loves to play basketball (his basketball IQ might be the lowest of any pro).
His teammate LeBron James, conversely, is never satisfied with the amount of work he has put in. And LeBron had, perhaps, the best game of his Finals career in Game 1, but it was all for naught because JR Smith had the most ludicrous and high-profile mistake I have witnessed in my time watching the NBA. There are other factors too: the Warriors are unfairly good, the referees made several poor judgments (beyond the charging/blocking foul controversy), George Hill did miss the free throw (although I do not personally attribute that to the loss at all), and nobody called a timeout. But JR’s screw-up was the biggest factor in that loss, and it is pretty undeniable.
Of course, a part of me loves JR. A big part, truthfully. When he won Sixth Man of the Year as a Knick, I was so happy for him—I really loved him (I’m still the proud owner of a JR Smith Knicks t-shirt). I was pretty devastated when Phil Jackson dealt him and Iman Shumpert for virtually nothing. I was thrilled for him when he was part of that Cavaliers team that came back and won the Finals after being down 3-1.
We love JR because he is so gifted. He can do amazing things.
However, no athlete that I have cared for has ever been as frustrating as JR Smith. He has always been reliably unreliable and consistently inconsistent.
In my life, I have learned that only a few things are guaranteed; and one of them is that JR Smith will do whatever JR Smith wants to do.
Featured Image via: Flickr/Keith Allison
