For most of his career J.R. Smith has had the reputation of a bad boy who just jacked up shots for the age old sake of getting buckets. Some say that he was a cancer in the locker room, which I find harsh because none of us couch know-it-all’s have an idea about what happens in the locker room. Cancer is never a word to associate with someone in a loose matter such as basketball.
In recent years J.R. Smith has been smart, the only time he’s in headlines is when he says a great quote and his hot and cold moments have levelled off dramatically. He’s now with the Cavs fulfilling his new nickname “Jumpshot Jesus”. So who should we thank for this J.R. Smith that sees a different sight? His daughter. Back when Smith was a NBA prospect he was in with the chance to play with LeBron James, but the Cavs thought having another young gun would break the franchise so they got a senior instead. The rest is history.
“I’m not upset about my career, I’m just upset about how my name has been portrayed,” Smith said. “A lot of guys have played with Bron and had success. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’ve tried to change my image a million times.”
Yes, the image. The suspensions. The off-court trouble. The partying. The feuds with coaches. Smith has been waging a battle with his reputation for nearly as long as he has been thinking about wearing the same uniform as James.
Moving onto last year we saw everyone else get fat contracts. Butler, max. Middleton, $70 Million, even Wes Matthews who was coming of an achilles injury got $70 Million. J.R. was struggling to get a phone call.
“The market was going crazy, I mean it was ridiculous,” Smith said. “You see so many people getting paid. I started to look at myself in the mirror and was like, ‘Damn, am I really what everybody saying I am? Am I really a cancer?’ We’d just gotten to the Finals and I’m not trying to toot my horn, but I thought I’d had a major part in that.”
Smith is still with the Cavs and is working on himself, he got married last year and is working on being a good father, which brings us to his aforementioned daughter Demi.
Papa Smith was giving away his daughters toys, which came to a conversation that clearly stuck with J.R.
Before last season, Smith was rounding up some of his daughter’s toys despite her objections. Smith wanted to donate the toys she no longer played with to charity.
“She said, ‘I don’t want to give away these toys.’ I said, ‘Baby, that’s a sacrifice you’re going to have to make. If you want some new toys, you have give some,’” Smith said. “She looked at me and said, ‘Daddy what are you going to sacrifice?’ I was like, wow. I had to think about it. What was I sacrificing?”
“So I started watching film of defensive players like Tony Allen. I’ve watched a lot of film of Kobe [Bryant] when he was younger to watch what he did with his hands, like how he’d swipe up not swipe down. Would I have ever done that before this season? Absolutely not. I’d go on YouTube and watch [Allen] Iverson, [Michael] Jordan, Kobe; all highlights.
“Before this year, if you caught me in the summer and asked me questions like what are you going to do on pick-the-picker or backside rotations, I’d have been like, um, what?“
How good is that? What a turnaround in ethics that is.
I think we all find J.R. Smith fun to watch at times and painful to watch at times. But I’m glad that he is looking to become a better player, it’s even more cool that the turning point came from his daughter.
