One former Cleveland Cavaliers star — and a key member of the legendary 2016 NBA championship team — is in legal hot water.
According to TMZ, Former Cavaliers guard and 16-year NBA veteran J.R. Smith was arrested on Tuesday in Texas.
Smith played for the Cavaliers from 2015 to 2019 — playing in the finals in 3 out of the 4 seasons he was in Cleveland, playing alongside NBA career scoring leader LeBron James.
Smith teamed with James again in 2020, Smith’s final NBA season, to win another NBA title with the Los Angeles Lakers.
From TMZ: “Former NBA star and two-time champion J.R. Smith was arrested Tuesday in Texas on a family violence charge. According to Hunt County jail records, Smith was booked on a charge of assault causing bodily injury family violence. Smith remains in the Hunt County Detention Center, and jail records show no bond has been set. He looks stone-faced in his mug shot, staring straight into the camera in a dark jail smock. Smith played 16 seasons in the NBA and won championships with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and Los Angeles Lakers in 2020 before retiring.”
Smith Sentenced to 90 Days Over Fatal Car Crash
This isn’t Smith’s 1st brush with the law.
He was sentenced to 90 days in jail for his role in a fatal car crash in 2007 in New Jersey, in which 1 of his passengers, Andre Bell, died several days after he was ejected from a car Smith was driving that ran a stop sign and hit a car in oncoming traffic. Smith pled guilty to reckless driving in that case and served 24 days in jail — an incident that also resulted in a 7-game NBA suspension.
Massive Career Earnings for Former 1st-Round Pick
Smith went straight from high school to the NBA — he was a 1st-round pick (No. 18 overall) by the New Orleans Hornets out of St. Benedict’s Prep in the 2004 NBA Draft.
While Smith earned approximately $92.2 million in his NBA career and won 2 NBA titles, he’s perhaps best known for 1 of the most boneheaded plays in NBA history.
In Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, with the score tied 107-107, Smith grabbed a rebound with 4.7 seconds left off a missed free throw by teammate George Hill.
Instead of putting the ball back up to win the game, Smith turned and dribbled the clock out — mistakenly thinking Hill’s 1st free throw had given the Cavaliers the lead.
The Warriors went on to sweep the Cavs in 4 games.
Former Cavs Star & NBA Champion Arrested in Texas