New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith made headlines Wednesday night when he put Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings on blast via Twitter for criticizing his brother and teammate, Chris. But now J.R. claims that he didn't mean to threaten Jennings, according to ESPN's Marc Stein:
J.R. Smith says he didn’t threaten Brandon Jennings on Twitter
The Knicks guard claims he just wanted to stand up for his brother.
Maddie Meyer
"Threaten? No. There's a way to threaten somebody, and that's not the way to publicly threaten somebody," Smith said before tipoff of the Knicks-Rockets game Thursday night.
The whole ordeal began when Jennings sent out a tweet that read: “Wait wait wait JR smith brother is in the NBA but @PoohJeter & @BBROWNLAU isn’t. Call me hater but not Rollin!!!”
Jennings was referring to fellow Los Angeles natives Pooh Jeter and Bobby Brown, both of whom are playing overseas. The Pistons guard later deleted the tweet, but not before J.R. tweeted out the following:
No respect for these lil kids who pop at the mouth on twitter an then want to delete they tweets! #GrowUp! #ManUp! @TheOnlyCSmith0 #Facts!
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) November 14, 2013
Smith deleted the first tweet, but the second one is still up. However, the Knicks guard made sure to reiterate that there’s no bad blood between him and Jennings:
“It’s not that serious. I go to L.A. in the summertime and see him all the time ... I don’t know how it got this blow out of proportion,” Smith said.
Smith went on to say that he only did it because he wanted to stand up for his younger brother, who has taken a lot of criticism for having a guaranteed contract with the Knicks despite the fact that the team has clear needs elsewhere. Some believe Chris’ roster spot was guaranteed as part of a package deal when J.R. re-signed with the team this offseason, and the relationship with Creative Artists Agency adds another layer of intrigue.
The NBA is currently investigating the Twitter feud and is expected to have a ruling on the situation in the next few days.
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