J.R. Smith feels that he’s been “blackballed” from the NBA.
Smith, 36, hopped on a Complex Sports interview with Pierce Simpson to unveil his feelings.
When asked if he feels he’s been “blackballed” from the NBA, Smith let his emotions run loose about the topic.
“100 percent. Anybody can sit here and tell you that that’s a fact,” he said. “Give the four through 15th men, just the four through 15. Name one of them that’s better than me… I’ve watched their GM come up to me and ask me, ‘Why are you not playing?’”
Smith notched a Sixth Man of the Year trophy with the Knicks in 2013 and won two titles as a prominent role player during his 16 years in the NBA.
But the ex-NBA guard became well-known for his blunder of passing the ball in the waning seconds of Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals instead of putting up a shot.
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 the college’s academic athlete of the year.
Smith added on the podcast that he’s not alone in getting blackballed, that other players such as Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford and Nick Young have been ostracized from getting a contract, too.
“You know why I’m not playing,” Smith said in the interview. “I feel that it’s a whole genre that [it has] happened to.”