Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith is still very much appreciative of former teammate LeBron James for leading them to the promised land in 2016.
Smith, who was answering fan questions on Twitter, was asked of his favorite moment with the now Los Angeles Lakers superstar.
The 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers championship run will obviously stick with Smith forever, who won his first ring with the Cavs.
It was a considered a monumental upset as the Cleveland was able to take down and snatch the title from a Golden State Warriors team that seemed to be destined to win it all, as they finished the regular season with a 73-9 record, the best in NBA history. But LeBron and the Cavaliers turned that supposedly Cinderella run into a nightmare after winning the series in seven games.
What made that run extra special was that they came back after falling behind 3-1 in the series. No team had ever come back from that hole and win an NBA finals until the Cavaliers accomplished the feat in 2016.
Smith played a vital role in that seven game classic with the Warriors in 2016. He was the third leading scorer of the Cavaliers in that series, where he averaged 10.6 points per game on 40 percent shooting from the field and 35.6 from three.
People also seem to forget that the spit-fire guard was instrumental in Game 7, where he made two straight crucial three-pointers, after the Cavaliers fell down by eight points to start the second half. This swung the momentum towards the Cavs and brought them back into the ball game.
Smith is now infamously known for his Shaqtin’ a Fool blunder in Game 1 of this past season’s NBA Finals. NBA fans on social media jokingly allude to that play, which was the headline of many memes all over the internet, as the moment that LeBron James decided to leave Cleveland once again.
Despite James departing for Los Angeles (perhaps because of Smith’s bone-headed play), Smith is still rightfully grateful to the one who gave him his only ring.