Former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones recently aired out what really happened when it came to a less-than-stellar decision by J.R. Smith last season, and it turned around to be as bad as it initially sounded.
The Cleveland Cavaliers had so much drama last season, and it’s really incredible to think they still made the NBA Finals, when you consider all that occurred, both with issues on and off the court. One of the issues was in March of 2018, which involved J.R. Smith throwing soup at former Cleveland assistant coach Damon Jones (then h/t ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin), which led to a one-game suspension from the team.
Yesterday Jones gave the details on what happened to him in the incident to ESPN’s David Jacoby during an airing of Jalen and Jacoby (h/t WKYC’s Ben Axelrod), and it sounded awful.
The one-game suspension was warranted, and man, what a waste of chicken tortilla soup.
We FINALLY get some juicy, soupy details about the J.R. Smith soup-throwing incident thanks to the very classy recipient of said soup, @D19J pic.twitter.com/xKzryDJmGj
— Jalen & Jacoby (@JalenandJacoby) March 19, 2019
Jones, who was fired in October, did clearly highlight that Smith did not just toss the soup, but the “bowl plus the soup,” so, yes, that sounded pretty rough.
Jones emphasized that it was the “first bowl out of the pot,” too, and also said that it “hit me in the shoulder, arm, everywhere.”
OUCH.
I’ve never personally had soup thrown on me before, and I would imagine that being around Smith had to be pretty darn awkward from that point on for Jones.
The former Cleveland Cavaliers assistant would go on say that he and Smith didn’t talk for “probably three months.”
He cited that he and Smith hashed it out a night after a back-to-back against the Philadelphia 76ers to Jacoby.
That, however, seems false, considering the back-to-back against the Sixers was in April last year, as Sports Illustrated’s Dan Gartland noted.
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Nonetheless, Jones and Smith’s relationship from that point on, I would think, was anything but smooth sailin’.
Hearing about stuff like this, when the Cleveland Cavaliers were in contention and had LeBron James on their roster, who was maybe Smith’s biggest supporter, it’s understandable Smith and the Cavs mutually agreed for the veteran to not actively be involved with the team back in November (which is still the arrangement).
This year, Smith has averaged just 6.7 points on just 34.2 percent shooting and has only appeared in 11 games (per Basketball Reference).
In a season in which Smith wouldn’t be playing much, if at all, right now, considering the team is amid a full-rebuild and needs to allow younger players to get considerable experience, it’s clearly for the best.
In addition, Smith’s had quite the track record when it comes to fines in his career, as the aforementioned Axelrod illustrated, and noted that this soup-throwing one cost the veteran “a $94,897 paycheck.”
"“According to Spotrac.com, the 15th-year swingman has been fined more than $742,000 over the course of his career.”"
I love what Smith has done on a number of occasions in the postseason for Cleveland, but this incident shows how much of an unnecessary distraction his antics can provide, and I would think the locker room had to have taken exception to it.
I also wouldn’t think Jones is the biggest fan of chicken tortilla soup anymore after hearing about this incident more extensively.