JR Smith pummeled a man who allegedly broke his car window on Sunday, and the NBA swingman was largely applauded for taking a stand against those who are taking advantage of police brutality protests by causing chaos and destruction. Smith is not proud of the act, however.
Smith spoke about the incident during an appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” Monday, and he called it a “random act of stupidness” from both him and the person who vandalized his truck.
"I'm 34 years old I have 4 little girls at home.. Regardless of the fact whether it was right or wrong.. I don't want them to have the image of their dad being capable of doing that"@TheRealJRSmith on easing up on his blows to the man vandalizing his car #PatMcAfeeShowLIVE pic.twitter.com/E05ITrjflv
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) June 1, 2020
“When it happened I was seeing red,” Smith explained. “When I kind of snapped to and knew what was going on … I’m still disappointed in myself even though people say I shouldn’t be. I’m 34 years old. I have four little girls at home. Regardless of whether it was right or wrong, I don’t want them to have that image of their dad being capable of doing something like that.”
You can see the original video here. Without context, it would certainly be a bad look for Smith — especially since he is a free agent who is still hoping for an NBA team to sign him. However, it’s difficult to blame someone for reacting that way when their property is deliberately damaged for no reason. There’s no indication that Smith was antagonizing anyone, and he said he was actually playing video games while the protests were going on and his friend had to inform him of what was happened.
We doubt NBA teams will hold the incident against Smith.
