JR Smith: From Castoff to Champion

The career of Earl Joseph Smith III has been quite a roller coaster ride, to say the least. The basketball world has had an odd relationship with JR, as he’s commonly known. Smith has gone from a castoff in New York and everywhere else he’s played to a key cog in a championship machine in Cleveland. That begs for a series of questions about him.

What changed for Smith? What started to click? Why now? Why not before?

The answers to those questions are rather complex, and may require a little bit of a deeper dive into JR Smith the person to fully understand JR Smith the basketball player.

Smith was born and raised in New Jersey. He attended St. Benedict’s Prep, a basketball powerhouse of a high school in Newark. From there the plan was for Smith to attend The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, however he deviated from that plan. This move would be a precursor to the rest of his career. After participating in the McDonald’s All-American Game (he shared co-MVP honors with Dwight Howard) following his senior year at St. Benedict’s he declared eligible for the 2004 NBA Draft. The 18-year-old prep-to-pro prospect was selected 18^th overall by the then New Orleans Hornets.

The plan for Smith has never been all that clear. After starting his career in New Orleans under head coach Byron Scott, he was dealt to Chicago and then ultimately Denver six days after the Bulls acquired him. This move was in-part due to his immaturity and tumultuous relationship with Scott. Partly, Smith may have been immature for the NBA early on, and partly Scott may have been unwilling to cater to a young player due to his old-school, my way or the highway approach. Nonetheless, the trade happened and a new home for the young shooter was found.

The issue with his new home was that it was much of the same as it was in New Orleans. If there were ever two conflicting styles, those were the styles of Smith and Denver Nuggets’ Head Coach George Karl.

There was a saving grace in Denver in the form of Carmelo Anthony, a player whom he later followed to New York. Playing with Anthony allowed a small taste of wining to be exposed to Smith. The Nuggets made the playoffs in all five seasons he spent in Denver. The furthest they advanced was in 2009 when they lost to the eventual NBA Champion Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

While winning did enter Smith’s career in Denver, controversy was ever present as well. He was suspended three times while a member of the Nuggets, most notable following a fatal car crash in which his friend was killed. He served 24 days in jail for his role in the accident as well. The other two suspensions were due to an on-court brawl between the Knicks and Nuggets as well as a nightclub altercation in 2007. The suspension in 2007 was by the Nuggets, however, not the NBA.

Following the 2011 season, the NBA entered a lockout with the Player’s Association. With nowhere to play, Smith opted to take his talents overseas to the Zhejiang Golden Bulls of the Chinese Basketball Association. His time in China was short, and he returned to the NBA as soon as he was allowed to following the CBA’s season. Upon his return to the US he signed with his hometown New York Knicks and old friend Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks were a playoff caliber team, partly due to Smith.

Once things fell apart for New York during the 2015 season, Smith was written off as someone who was more of a hindrance than a help to a championship. It was evident that things were no longer working in New York, and they probably never would with Smith in the picture. For the third time in his career, JR was dealt.

Smith admitted in an interview with Vice Sports that being traded to Cleveland upset him at the time.

“I was pissed, honestly. We just came off a 50-plus win year, we had an unbelievable team and then they break everything down to rebuild?” Smith said. “More than anything I was pissed because I couldn’t play with my best friend [Anthony] any more.”

Little did Smith know, he was soon to make a new best friend.

ENTER LEBRON JAMES

LeBron James seemed to have a different view of JR Smith than most of the NBA did. When the Cavaliers had the opportunity to better themselves during the 2015 season, many thought adding Knicks’ guard Iman Shumpert was the big asset they had acquired. James saw things a different way.

The Knicks saw it as in order for the Cavs to get Shumpert, they would have to take Smith too.
James and the Cavs saw it as they were able to get Smith and Shumpert was a throw in.

To this point, the Cavaliers’ assessment was correct.

“Get him [JR] here, and I’ll take care of it,” James said about Smith’s previous character issues. James clearly saw something more than many others did. “I knew the man he was and I didn’t really care about what everybody else thought of him.”

Smith immediately began to mature, although he certainly wasn’t perfect, In the first round of the 2015 NBA Playoffs, Smith was suspended yet again for his Flagrant-2 Foul on Boston’s Jae Crowder in Game 4 of the series. He was forced to sit for the first two games of the Eastern Conference Semi-Finals between the Cavs and the Chicago Bulls.

The 2015 Cavaliers ultimately fell short of winning a title, partly due to injuries to Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love and partly due to Smith’s inability to emerge as a number two scoring option behind James.

The 2016 Cavaliers were a different story, and that team changed Smith’s life forever. After Game 7 Smith spoke on the podium he was moved to tears and received an ovation from the media, which is something that never happens. He then went and hugged his father, who also was in tears. This moment solidified the maturity of Smith. He was no longer the knucklehead that didn’t fit in, was a disaster, and a loser. He was now a champion.

In the days following hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy he became a cult-hero of sorts, not just around Cleveland, but around the country. The Cavs’ celebration tour included stops in Las Vegas and a parade featuring 1.3 million fans in Cleveland.

Smith’s shirt was present for none of this. His tattoo filled torso became a national headline, President Obama implored Cavs’ Head Coach Tyronn Lue to make JR put a shirt on during his celebratory phone call to him, a Cleveland-area clothing company began to sell a shirt that resembled his shirtless torso. His clothing status was tracked during the brief moments it was on and again when it was back off.

He became a national topic of conversation, and for one of the first times in his career it was for a positive reason.

Everything came full circle for Smith on October 25 when he was given his ring against the most recent franchise to give up on him.

Following the 117-88 victory over the Knicks, James was asked if certain players view themselves differently now that they can call themselves champions.

“They should anytime you can be part of something special like this. We have a few guys here that have chips on their shoulders, a few guys that teams have given up on in their career. For them to come here and prove not only to other people but to prove to themselves that they’re championship worthy it means a lot to those individuals.” James said.

This question and answer did not directly mention either Smith or Shumpert, but it doesn’t take a detective to know that it was absolutely was centered around them. With New York in town, there was no better time for this question, and certainly no better answer that could have been given by James.

Smith was asked what he thought about while receiving his ring and watching the banner go up against the Knicks.

“It didn’t matter who we played honestly, what we accomplished last year doesn’t mean anything whether it’s the Knicks or anybody else.” Smith said. “I thought about my wife, my kids, I want them to be able to be proud of the man I am, I thought about my parents and the person they’ve raised. There were so many memories that took me to this point, I just wanted to cherish this as much as I can.”

There will always be jokes about him, songs about his offensive habits and other escapades, and the questionable past will always be there too. JR Smith may always be a few of those things. He’ll almost certainly always be an electric shooter, and a polarizing figure as well.  Moving forward he’ll also always be referred to as a champion, and no longer a castoff.