Cavs guard JR Smith won many of us over with his raw, emotional postgame press conference after winning the NBA title on Sunday. With his father in the media room looking on (and on Father’s Day no less), Smith broke down as he expressed his appreciation and gratitude for his parents and opened up about the blood, sweat, and tears it took with them for him to become an NBA champion (video here). On Monday, Smith’s father Earl discussed just how much the moment meant to his son.
In an interview with Frank Isola of the New York Daily News, the elder Smith said that seeing his son win the championship on Father’s Day “was better than any Christmas present.”
“I’m very proud of J.R.,” Earl said. “J.R. is still the same guy. I think things in New York were blown out of proportion. There are still some scars there. This meant a lot to him.”
During his time with the Knicks, Smith established a reputation as a bit of a miscreant bonehead who hogged the ball, couldn’t stay away from drugs, and preferred to party over honing his craft at the sport of basketball, angering coaches and teammates alike. Smith was booted from New York and traded to Cleveland in early 2015 as Knicks president Phil Jackson proceeded to the media to blast Smith’s “delinquent behavior.”
But Smith completely reinvented himself in Cleveland (perhaps because of, as Smith himself said, their lack of a nightlife scene). He successfully put to bed the prevailing narratives surrounding him by settling into and then thriving in a more supplementary, off-the-ball role and putting forth a greater, more concentrated effort on the defensive end.
It worked, and the Cavs took home their first NBA championship in franchise history. Now Smith can finally put those scars from his time in The Big Apple behind him once and for all and say, “Look, dad. We made it!”
