The infamous 2018 incident known simply as “JR’s Folly” will live on in sports lowlight reels for the better part of eternity. But the man responsible for perpetrating it does not think that he was the only one who was at fault.
In an appearance this week on the “I AM ATHLETE” podcast, JR Smith took a shot at his former team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, over their handling of the incident where he forgot the score in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors. With under five seconds left in a tied game at the end of regulation, Smith got an offensive rebound after a missed free throw by teammate George Hill but dribbled the ball out as time expired, thinking the Cavs were up by one point. The Warriors would go on to win in overtime and eventually sweep the Cavs to win it all.
“It was a island because none of the coaches said s—,” said Smith of the aftermath of his error. “It was like nobody wanted to take responsibility for it, so you left me with it. You know what I’m saying? And it’s like, okay, cool. If that’s the way you want to play it, we can’t call ourselves a real team.
“In any other situation, had it been anybody else, miss a shot, make a shot, whatever, they’ll tell you firsthand, ‘Oh, one play don’t change the game,’” added Smith. “But in this situation, nobody said that. Now granted, this a tied ballgame. ‘Oh why you ain’t shoot it?’ I get the rebound, I got KD [Kevin Durant] who’s seven foot, stick his hand up, he’s ten feet tall. I got another dude who’s my height right behind me. What else am I gonna do with the ball other than dribble it out?”
Smith did admit though that he was not paying attention to the score because he had been talking to a coach during a deadball sequence earlier.
Smith’s play was pretty boneheaded, but it was not the sole reason that the Cavaliers lost that game. LeBron James passed up an opportunity in single coverage with Steph Curry on him prior to the free throws, Hill was largely let off the hook for missing the free throw himself, and neither head coach Tyronn Lue nor any of the other Cavs players had the presence of mind to call the one timeout that they still had when Smith got the rebound. The Cavs as a whole also did not have enough mental toughness to overcome Smith’s error, either in overtime or in the three games that followed.
The memes Smith got for the incident were extensive and well-deserved. But he does have a point in that he was not the only one to blame for Cleveland’s loss that year. At least Smith got to redeem himself with a subsequent NBA title on the L.A. Lakers as well as with his endearing post-NBA activities.
