With his father in the media room looking on (and on Father’s Day no less), Smith broke down as he expressed his appreciation and gratitude for his parents and opened up about the blood, sweat, and tears it took with them for him to become an National Basketball Association champion (video here).
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J.R. speaking about how his actions impact his father was one of the more touching and impactful things I can remember hearing on a podium and the entire answer is one that should be replayed a bunch for a while.
“When our GM came to us previous year and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a deal to get Iman Shumpert, and the Knicks are going to throw in J.R.’ I was like, ‘What?”
“My parents, my family, that’s the biggest inspiration in my life. I know a lot of people don’t have their parents in life, but I got the best two I swear”. “But they are who they are, they fall with me”. They fought with me, they yelled at me, they screamed at me, they loved me, they hugged me, they cried with me. They always stuck by my side no matter right or wrong. And I think that’s a player that we can all root for any day of the week.
Smith was drafted straight out of high school in 2004. I know how hard it is. “It don’t come easy”. But the day had a special significance besides a victory in the NBA Finals.
Among them was J.R. Smith, already relishing his daughter’s incredible vote of confidence from earlier this week.
So if it wasn’t already easy to root for J.R. before this video, it should be very simple now. I’ve got him. I got him’. The tear ducts swelled, his speech got choked and we got to see a vulnerable J.R. that’s a long way from the irrationally confident wing who spent multiple seasons in Denver and NY earning his goofball reputation.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports.
