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I had the highest possible expectations for post-Championship JR Smith. The highest possible expectations. Anything and everything was on the table for post-Championship JR. Nothing he did, nothing that happened, was going to shock me. That’s what I thought.
And here we are… not even 24 hours into this magical ride… and he has blown by those expectations. WILDLY exceeded them.
First off… Lebron’s block. The block in itself? That might legitimately go down as the most important play in the history of the NBA. MJ over Russell, Ray Allen from the corner, Havlicek steals the ball, Magic’s sky hook, on and on… all great plays. This block tops them all. The most important play in the most important game in the history of the NBA. A block that, if he doesn’t make, results in a potentially insurmountable swing towards the Warriors. There is one person in the world, in the history of humanity, who can make that play, and Lebron made it.
Why am I mentioning this block in a JR Smith blog?
Because that block doesn’t happen without JR’s defense. JR had already committed to Curry and still somehow was able to turn his body back towards the hoop, jump in the air, get his hand up, force a double clutch from one of the most athletically gifted, acrobatic layup artists in the league in Iggy, NOT foul him, and give Lebron the extra fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of a second he absolutely needed to make that block… that’s almost as impressive as the block itself.
It’ll get lost in time because of just how fucking incredible the block was, but it was every bit as important. And JR deserves all the credit in the world for that.
And while we’re still on the actual game for a second… those 8 points JR scored to start the second half might have honestly saved their season. If he doesn’t hit those shots, who knows if the Cavs ever claw their way back in that game. I mean, they have Lebron, and I have a lot of Lebron thoughts coming later tonight, so yeah, maybe they do anyway. But you can’t possibly understate how important those 8 points were to swing the momentum back to Cleveland. Lebron and Kyrie can’t do everything, though Lebron comes pretty fucking close. And when they really needed JR to be Great JR, he fucking delivered. Okay… now to the more important stuff…
Because once the clock hit zero… that’s where the fun started.
First it was the tears on the court… All time happy cry face…
Then, as only JR could do, he managed to find time in-between the final whistle and the podium ceremony to hit the blunt…
Then there was this press conference. Which, for anyone who knows JR… Who has followed his career and laughed at his antics while also understanding how misunderstood he was a person, was one of the best things you could ever watch. Not even twenty minutes removed from the biggest moment of his life and he managed to articulately and emotionally capture his entire life… his entire essence… all the labels he’s dealt with, some fair and some incredibly unfair… everything he was about and how he tries to live… in the most perfect way possible. And he got to finish it off by hugging his dad, who he’s been through more with than any of us can imagine, on Father’s Day.
Then JR ran into the locker room. I’m going to go on record and say there’s a pretty decent chance JR is gonna be going the late-career Sheed & Shaq “play myself into shape this season” route. Might be a rocky October to December for the Pipe. Just a guess…
Then JR and Shump took these pictures. #KnickstapeForever
Then there was this picture… a picture that’ve I have already commissioned a full-sized portrait of to hang above my bed…
Then there’s this anecdote, which I guess I should also blow up and frame right above my new JR portrait. There are so many videos and pictures and anecdotes that you could say “perfectly capture the man that is JR Smith”, a lot of which you’re about to see in this blog. But this… this is up there, man. “JR you can’t do th–aaaaaaand he did it.”
Then there was Vegas…
Then JR took his shirt off within about 5 seconds of entering the club.
Spoiler alert, he didn’t put it back on the rest of the night (more on this later)…
And JR? He was TURNT. THE. FUCK. UP.
And then there’s this video, which is everything that I have ever wanted for Earl Joseph “J.R.” Smith III…
So then they flew back to Cleveland.
I mean, god only knows what happened in those few hours after the Vegas videos and before they got on the plane. One thing I know for certain, though? Pipe… pipe was laid.
So they get to Cleveland… and guess what? JR still doesn’t have a shirt on…
And he’s presumably still walking around the city of Cleveland, looking for an Uber to 1Oak, with no plans on wearing a shirt ever again…
And that’s where we’re at… for now. My impossibly high expectations for #PostChampionshipJR have already been exceeded. He’s jumped over every possible bar I could set and he’s still going. And there’s no end in sight. I honestly might be more excited to watch him on the Parade Float tomorrow than I was for Game 7 last night. The most must-watch Championship Parade of all Championship Parades. Let’s keep this train rolling. #PipeForever
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