J.R. Smith is an NBA champion. That's certainly a sentence we never thought we'd write. And it's not like J.R. was just along for the ride, either. The 30-year-old veteran averaged 11.5 points per game this postseason and shot a scorching 43 percent from deep. He contributed on defense, too, especially in the finals, where he took on the gruesome task of chasing around Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson for seven games.
J.R. Smith came a long way to become an NBA champion
The Cavaliers shooting guard broke down when reflecting on some of his earlier struggles in life. He’s grown up a lot to get to this point.
Even LeBron James noted how impressed he was with Smith’s evolution from selfish chucker to valuable role player for a championship team.
"Just understand what J.R.'s been through and people just saying that there's no way he can be a winner," James told reporters following the Cavaliers' history-making 93-89 Game 7 win over the Warriors. "When our GM came to us last year and said, 'Hey, we've got a deal to get Timofey Mozgov and get Iman Shumpert, and the Knicks are going to throw in J.R.,' I was like, what? They're going to throw in J.R. into the deal? And I was like, 'Okay, I've got him. I got him.'
“And J.R. turned himself into not only a huge boost to our team, but he turned himself into a two-way player, both sides of the floor.”
Smith did struggle from the field against the Warriors, shooting just 40 percent overall and 36 percent from deep. His effort, however, was always there, and he gave the Cavaliers 12 points in Game 7, including an important eight in the third quarter when the Warriors appeared poised to pull away. It was an impressive clutch performance from a player who’s spent his 12-year NBA career defending himself and his play.
After the game Smith was asked about his career and what it means to become a champion. While answering he mentioned his father, Earl Smith, and that Sunday was Father’s Day. He was then began to cry.
You can watch his answer in the video clip above. Here’s the transcription:
I mean, my parents, my family -- that’s the biggest inspiration in my life. I’ve been in a lot of dark spots in my life, and if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be able to get out of them. But they are who they are. They followed me. They yelled at me, they screamed at me. They loved me. They hugged me. They cried with me. They always stuck by my side, no matter right or wrong. And I know a lot of people don’t have their parents in their life -- their mother or their father -- but, I got the best two. You guys were, I swear. There’s six of us and they didn’t treat any of us different. They loved us the same. They treated us all the same, and I just want to be like them when I grow up. My dad is easily my biggest inspiration to play this game. To hear people talk bad about me, it hurts me, because I know it hurts him, and that’s not who I am. And I know he raised better, and I know I want to do better. Everything I do is for my parents and my family. The cars is nice, the houses is nice, but none of this matters without them. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. I don’t know where I would be. Honestly, if it wasn’t for them -- if it wasn’t for the structure and the backbone that I have -- I wouldn’t be able to mess up and keep coming back and being able to sit in front of you as a world champion.
Most of the focus following the Cavaliers’ win is rightfully being devoted to LeBron James. But Smith’s press conference is another reminder that even stars can’t win titles alone and that even the most mercurial of players can change their ways.
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