Worst To First: My Journey To Contention
I wasn’t expecting to be traded to the Cavs, but the move to Cleveland has been a complete 180 for me — both professionally and personally.
By J.R. Smith
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Fear. Anxiety. Apprehension.
Those, and about a hundred other emotions flooded my mind on the evening of Jan. 5, when I was told that I had been traded along with Iman Shumpert from the New York Knicks to the Cleveland Cavaliers. I’ve been an NBA player for 11 seasons now, and though I have played for four different teams, it was the first time I’d ever been traded mid-season. To say the news was a shock to the system would be an understatement.
It was no secret then (and it still isn’t now) that things at Madison Square Garden had not gone according to plan. Losing, it seemed, was only bringing more losing this season, and no matter what we tried — no matter how hard we played — we just couldn’t seem to find a way to make things come together. No single person was to blame, really; it just wasn’t meant to be with that group.
Still, while you might assume that getting a free pass to get out of last place is something any player would relish, that’s not exactly how things work when you are a professional athlete. There I was, headed to a championship-caliber team — with an opportunity to play alongside the best player in the world — and yet my mind and heart were with my brothers on the Knicks. I had played almost the entirety of my professional career with Carmelo Anthony. We and our teammates had fought together in the trenches, we had played some really good basketball, and we had a lot of fun along the way. No matter how many losses we had racked up recently, my instinct was not to leave anyone, and more importantly, not to leave ‘Melo.
Of course, you already know what comes next because you’ve heard it said countless times before: This is a business. For the most part, and for most players, it is.
But not for me.
Like we had done so many times before, me and ‘Melo getting ready for business. (AP)
With 45 games games in the rearview mirror since the trade, I’ve been able to reflect on things, and now see it as a blessing in disguise. For me, being away from New York, my hometown, has led to far fewer distractions. In Cleveland, there just isn’t much to do after 9 p.m., so the days of fashion shows, shopping, and the nights out have been replaced by one thing and one thing only: Basketball.
There have been unfair rumors that lead people to have misconceptions about me: that I don’t care; that I don’t take my job seriously; that I am not committed to my craft. It’s unfortunate, but people have been saying this about me during my entire career. It obviously bothers me and naturally would bother anyone to feel that people don’t take you seriously as a person. I see it in media commentary during each season, and I experience it firsthand when I’m on the golf course in the offseason, everywhere. Then after 18 holes, or lunch, or a meeting, without fail, someone tells me I am a completely different person than who they perceived me to be.
Everyone expects me to be some kind of NBA rock star guy, but truthfully, that’s just not me. Not at all.
Look, I get it. I understand that my appearance, the way I carry myself, the past ways I have handled myself on social media — all of these impact the way the public sees me. It’s not necessarily what I want, but when you are a professional athlete, it comes with the territory. Those people, the people that really do know me, hold me to a really high standard and I don’t want to let them down.
So while it’s easy for me to say publicly that I don’t care what people think about me, or what they say about me, it’s actually A LOT harder than you’d imagine. I do care what daughters and my parents think about what is said and written. Unfortunately, the way I am portrayed just isn’t reality.
Now that I am in Cleveland, though, it seems as though people are finally starting to get to know the real me.
(AP)
Thankfully, “Who is J.R. Smith?” is not the first question I get asked these days. Cleveland fans care much more about what’s happening on the court, even though I do still get the daunting question, “Who do I like playing better with: Melo or Lebron?”
They are different people, different players, with different supporting casts, in different situations.
Carmelo Anthony is not LeBron James. And LeBron James is not Carmelo Anthony. Period.
At his core, Carmelo is a scorer and he always will be. While some insist on framing that as a negative, the simple fact is that ‘Melo is one of the greatest to ever do it.’ It’s funny, but I don’t hear anyone bashing Kevin Durant for being a scorer first. Sure, I may be biased, but when it comes to ‘Melo, I rarely hear any of the “so-called” experts mentioning that he has never had the cast around him that LeBron, Kobe Bryant or some of the other elite-level talents have had at their sides when they won their titles. Instead, it seems like he’s always the one to blame when things go wrong.
Playing with LeBron is different in the way he demands nothing less than the best of his teammates, and doesn’t have to have an individual focus on scoring to maximize his impact.
He expects us to be accountable, and doesn’t hesitate to make plays that ensure that we do well before he does. LeBron is both willing and able to carry the load. From the very first time you meet the man, it’s crystal clear to you that he is very much aware of what he needs to do to get the most out of his teammates. LeBron sacrifices his own scoring stats to grab every rebound, to make every smart pass, to defend every possession — all in the name of winning. And despite what might be said in the media, I can tell you honestly that for both LeBron and ‘Melo, winning is the only thing that matters.
Naturally, as LeBron’s teammate, when you see the top dog playing the game a certain way, you have no choice but to follow suit. Not because you bow down to King James, but because the results are there for the team, because the wins keep coming, and because you can literally see things coming together each night right before your eyes.
(AP)
As for what comes next in Cleveland, I will make it real simple for you: If we continue to play the way we have been playing, I don’t think anyonecan beat us.
Now, while I can’t sit here and tell you that Kyrie Irving is the best point guard I ever played with — Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd would have something to say about that — he’s undoubtedly the one of the most talented floor generals (and finishers) I have ever seen, let alone suited up alongside. Playing with Kyrie, I have had some of the most fun I’ve ever had on the basketball court — and I was on the floor when ‘Melo dropped 62 at the Garden last year. This experience is right there with it. Everything Kyrie does is amazing; he’s just a ridiculous player, and his explosion is the most unbelievable thing I have witnessed in a while.
And forget what anyone says, Kevin Love is the ultimate teammate. He isn’t the most athletic player out there — actually, Kevin is like that guy you see in a 40-and-up league just killing it because he knows the game better than anyone else out there. Mentally, Love is just in another stratosphere when it comes to understanding basketball. Plus, not only is he an underrated shooter who can knock shots down better than half the guards in the league, he is also the best rebounder I have played with, hands down.
More important than what you notice about Love’s game, though, is what you don’t. He does all of the little things a team needs to win, and that sort of stuff trickles down to each and every one of us, including me. Guys like him make you want to play harder. They help you keep your focus and intensity, because if he’s doing it night in and night out with smarts, heart and determination, well … what’s your excuse? Put it this way: If I had a son grow up to be a big man, you better believe he’d be enrolled in Kevin Love’s summer camp.
And that’s the thing — on a losing team, those little things just don’t happen. On a winning team, you feed off one another and you become so engrossed in the team life, you find yourself learning from and emulating everyone. It’s not just LeBron, Kyrie and Love, either. On the Cavs, it’s veterans like Mike Miller and James Jones, too.
Now that the playoffs are here, people are going to discover that our greatest strength is that we play for one another. We willingly share our knowledge with one another so that collectively, the team becomes even stronger. It happens in practice, it happens on the floor during games, and it even happens from the bench.
With all this being said, it doesn’t matter if I am playing in New York, Cleveland, or Timbuktu. It’s all about the opportunity to play in a place where I have the best chance to win.
https://medium.com/the-cauldron/worst-to-first-my-journey-to-contention-4a5dd4ec0811
Great read. Thanks for posting this.
JR stfu....dude didn't even write this article it's too intelligent for him.
Why is it so farfetched that JR wrote this? Cmon dog.
