The Cleveland Cavaliers acquired JR Smith and Iman Shumpert from the New York Knicks in January 2015. Smith and Shumpert helped the Cavaliers reach the 2015 NBA Finals, where LeBron James and Co. lost to the Golden State Warriors in six games.
Smith did not want to be traded by the Knicks. He told Carmelo Anthony that he cried when the New York-Cleveland trade happened.
“I ain’t going to lie bro, I cried,” Smith said. “I was in Memphis. We were in Memphis. I was working out. We were getting ready for the game and I came back in the locker room and Steve Mills pulled me aside. He’s like, ‘Yeah man, we just traded you and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland.’
“And I was just like, ‘Damn, where like, you know, I ain’t want to say nothing of him or whatever’ because I already had my feelings about him and the situation that we were already in with the new group, new regime, whatever at that time.”
Smith and Shumpert were very close to Anthony. They also loved playing for the Knicks, one of the most historic franchises in sports.
However, Smith and Shumpert eventually grew close to James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The Cavaliers returned to the NBA Finals in 2016 and made NBA history by becoming the first team to erase a 3-1 series deficit in the Finals.
Cleveland beat Golden State in seven epic games. Irving hit the game-winning shot over Stephen Curry in Game 7, while James had the famous chase-down block on Andre Iguodala.
Smith and James won their second title together in 2020 with the Los Angeles Lakers, who beat the Miami Heat in the Walt Disney World bubble.
Shumpert, Smith and Anthony are no longer in the NBA, while James is still with the Lakers. He’s the oldest active player in the league at 40 years old.
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