Who knew Dwyane Wade asking to come off the bench after being inserted into the starting lineup over J.R. Smith could cause a controversy a week later.
No, there are no chemistry issues or personal grudges between the two teammates, but the fact that Smith wasn’t the happiest camper about being relegated to the bench somehow brought him under fire although he complied without any issues.
ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith apparently loves Wade the person and the player, but also feel it was counterproductive to insert him into the Cavs starting lineup prematurely. Not many will disagree with the notion, but Smith segued from his praise of Wade onto the new team uniform warmups.
Not only does Smith not like the warm-ups but he feels they make white people uncomfortable, and used J.R. Smith as his object of focus to fuel his rant and throw out some cringe-worthy commentary in the process.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=113&v=1gMRUAPFsoc
Somehow and someway, Smith felt hoodies were the perfect comparison for a sports uniform and to shoot down J.R. Smith unprovoked.
“But the bench…for a basketball player sitting on the bench with his team. That is no place for a hoodie. I don’t know why the hell Nike did that. They need to get rid of those damn hoodies. There’s no place for a hoodie. A hoodie shouldn’t be attached to a uniform that you can wear on the bench during a game but J.R. Smith had it on and he wasn’t happy. And psychologically, he can’t deal with the relegation to the degree that Dwayne Wade can deal with it.”
Smith caught wind of the commentary Saturday morning, and responded on Twitter with a series of tweets and ending his own rant with a savage parting shot.
Smith had a difficult time understanding why he was singled out for wearing league issued uniform warm-ups and rightfully so. In a world where things make sense, Smith wouldn’t have the opportunity to rant on sports radio about whatever he chooses, but that’s not where we are, and Smith, J.R. that is, is better of as he was, spending his time focusing on the season.