HANDLING THE HEAT
Smith OK with being butt of jokes
OAKLAND, Calif. — If the scorn and derision of the basketball world had to come down on one Cleveland Cavalier, J.R. Smith is glad it was him.
Smith has been scrutinized and studied, rapped and pilloried since his brain freeze moment near the end of regulation of Game 1. With the score tied, Smith grabbed the rebound of a missed free throw by teammate George Hill — and promptly dribbled away the clock. Gentlemen, start your contempt engines.
“I told somebody right after the game I’m glad it happened to me as opposed to anybody else on my team,” Smith said. “To be in that situation is tough and it’s not a situation everybody can handle so I’m glad it happened to me.”
After the Cavs lost, 124-114, to the Warriors in overtime Thursday, Smith maintained he knew the score was tied and was waiting for someone to call a timeout.
“I’ve been thinking about it a lot, obviously the last 24 hours and however many minutes since the game was over, I can’t say I was sure of anything at that point,” Smith said Saturday.
Video appeared to show Smith telling teammate LeBron James he thought the Cavs were ahead at the time.
“I might have said that,” Smith said. “I’m not sure but I might have.”
Immediately, Smith was roasted on social media. He became linked to the greatest miscues in sports history. Smith said his makeup allows him to endure the misery and criticism.
“That’s pretty much who I’ve been my whole life,” Smith said. “I’ve always been the one guy who’s the butt of the jokes or the one guy that does something crazy that everybody has to look at. And then I just come back and be myself and play the next day. I don’t really dwell on things too much. It’s been like that my whole life and that’s the way it looks like it’s going to continue to be. So I’ve just got to go out there and be me.”
For which the Twitter world says, thanks. Teammates, however, have rallied behind him.
“He’s always found a way to … catch fire in games or play both sides of the ball or do things that don’t necessarily show up on the stat sheet or make a miraculous play,” Kevin Love said. “We know what he’s capable of. He knows what he’s capable of.”
One guy especially who has had his back has been James, not a bad guy to have on your side. He said Saturday he is confident Smith will rebound from the mess.
“J.R.’s one of the most resilient guys I’ve ever been around,” James said. “He took that loss as hard as anybody the other night, just [as hard] as anybody on the team. But one thing about J.R., he has an uncanny ability to bounce back and I think people have seen that throughout our postseason runs.
“If he hasn’t played well or played to his ability, how he should have played, the next game he comes out and shoots the ball extremely well. Just very locked in. For me I don’t think I need to say anything to J.R.,” James said. “J.R. knows what I expect out of him and he expects things out of me.”
Of course, it is tough to meet James’ standards. But Smith sort of turned that around.
“There’s a lot of pressure … for myself and teammates just playing on his team,” Smith said. “It’s almost a blessing, a gift, and a curse. You get to play on his team and play with the best player in the world and you get to witness some great historic things and be a part of it. Then the other side, if you don’t help that person win they’re looking at you, too. So it’s a lot of pressure.” So how does he deal with it? “I tell him all the time he has the opportunity to play with me as well,” Smith said.