J. R. may opt out of pact

In the fourth quarter of the NBA season’s last game, J. R. Smith again showed the world what a positive he can be when he scored 15 points for the Cavaliers.

Too bad he spent so much of the other time in the Finals showing what a negative he can be aswell. And that’s why his proclamation to ESPN that he intends to opt out of the final year of his contract, worth $ 6.399 million, raised some eyebrows.

“Oh man,” one opposing general manager said. “Look, we all know he’s a talented kid, a terrific oneonone player. But he had to go to Cleveland and get with LeBron to calm him down and get him to play the right way. Even then, he slipped back at times, which is mindboggling. I can’t think anybody would offer him more than what he would get at Cleveland.”

Smith, who with Iman Shumpert, was part of the trade beating the Knicks suffered inseason in a threeteam deal with the Cavs and Thunder, said he “absolutely, absolutely” planned on returning to Cleveland.

“Went from a bad situation into a great situation, and tried tomake the best ofwhat I had. Fortunately it was greatly appreciated,” said Smith. “Came to the Finals, came up short, but at the end of the day, itwas the team that just had been put together.”

Andre Iguodala,

in his 11th season, never achieved the sort of national celebrity he gained for his selfless play throughout the Finals, when he took on the impossible task of trying to guard LeBron

James. Still, Iguodala won in the voting over LBJ, 74.

“Exhausting. More mentally than anything,” Iguodala said. “You go through 82 games and play hard. It will prepare you for the physical load, and then playing him a lot, I kind of knew how to lessen the blow… I just kept thinking about the game and what do I need to do to win, how to guard LeBron. That’s what makes him arguably the best player in the world right now, because you have to put so much effort in.”