JR Smith says he’s ‘blackballed’ by NBA: ‘100%’
JR Smith feels like he was blackballed from the NBA.
Smith, 36, jumped on a Complex Sports interview with Pierce Simpson to open up about his feelings.
When asked if he felt he had been “blackballed” from the NBA, Smith let his emotions run wild on the subject.
“100 percent. Anyone can sit here and tell you that’s a fact,” he said. “Give the four to 15 men, just the four to 15. Name one who is better than me…I saw their GM come up to me and say, ‘Why aren’t you playing?'”
Smith picked up a Sixth Man of the Year trophy with the Knicks in 2013 and won two top-tier titles in his 16 years in the NBA.
But the former NBA guard rose to fame for his blunder of passing the ball in the closing seconds of Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals instead of shooting.
After the mistake, he played a total of 17 NBA games. He now plays college golf for North Carolina A&T State University and was named college athlete of the year.
Smith added on the podcast that he’s not the only one who has been blackballed, other players such as Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford and Nick Young have also been ruled out of getting a contract.
“You know why I don’t play,” Smith said in the interview. “I feel like it’s a whole genre that [it has] arrive at.”
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