"Name one of them that's better than me" - Former NBA champion claims he and 4 other players were blackballed by the league
J.R. Smith believes he was blackballed by the NBA in his final few years despite still having plenty to offer to contending teams.
Smith is a two-time NBA champion and won the Sixth Man of the Year award with the New York Knicks in 2012-13.
In an interview with ComplexSports, he was specifically asked whether he had been blackballed by the league. Smith replied:
“Yeah, a 100 percent. Anybody can sit here and tell you that that’s a fact. You got those 30 teams, or the top three people on each team and exclude them. Give me the four through 15th men, just the four through 15. Name one of them that’s better than me.
Smith added:
"I’ve watched their GM come up to me and ask me, ‘Why are you not playing?’ You know why I'm not playing."
Smith believes he isn't alone in that scenario and that a few other players were also phased out by the league.
"And I feel like it's a whole genre that that happened to. The Joe Johnsons who obviously still got game, still can play. Jamal Crawford, still got game, still can play. Nick Young, still got game, still can play. Isaiah Thomas, still got game, still can play."
"Give me the 4 through 15th men on each team. Name one of them that's better than me."
J.R. Smith thinks he, Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford, Nick Young, and Isaiah Thomas were blackballed from the NBA.
(Via @ComplexSports) https://t.co/cUINiTKfhC
JR Smith won NBA titles with the Cleveland Cavaliers and LA Lakers
Smith played in the NBA for 16 years. He was drafted by the New Orleans Hornets in 2004 and then went on to play for the Denver Nuggets, the Knicks, the Cleveland Cavaliers and the LA Lakers.
In his final NBA season, Smith reunited with LeBron James and won his second NBA championship in the Orlando bubble. He averaged 12.4 points per game and shot 37.7% from 3-point range in his career.
Some of the other names mentioned by Smith also achieved a ton of success in the NBA. Jamal Crawford played for the league over a 20-year span and won Sixth Man of the Year honors on three separate occasions. Joe Johnson made it to the 2001-02 All-Rookie team and was a seven-time All-Star.
Johnson last played significant minutes in the 2017-18 season. He was given a 10-day contract by the Boston Celtics in the 2021-22 campaign but played only one game.
Isaiah Thomas, meanwhile, finished the 2016-17 NBA season as a top-five MVP candidate with the Boston Celtics. But his form tailed off soon after and he struggled to find a team. He last played for the Charlotte Hornets in the 2021-22 season.
Nick Young won a ring with the Golden State Warriors in 2018, but then played just four more games, for the Denver Nuggets the following season.