It didn’t feel like a fresh start at the time. Not even close.
When the Knicks traded JR Smith and Iman Shumpert to the Cavs in January 2015, Smith wasn’t exactly embracing the move.
“I ain’t going to lie bro, I cried,” Smith told Carmelo Anthony. “I was in Memphis … Steve Mills pulled me aside. He’s like, ‘Yeah man, we just traded you and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland.’”
Smith had grown close to Anthony and was comfortable in New York, even as the situation around the team shifted.
“And I was just like, ‘Damn,’” Smith said. “I ain’t want to say nothing … I already had my feelings about the situation.”
Funny how things work.
Smith and Shumpert quickly found their footing alongside LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. The Cavs reached the Finals that season, then made history a year later, rallying from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Warriors in the Finals.
That trade didn’t feel great in the moment. It turned out to be everything.
“I had a great time in Cleveland. The fans were great,” Smith told Michael Scotto of HoopsHype on the HoopsHype Podcast. “Winning that championship was something that will forever be in the history of basketball, but especially in the history of Cleveland, especially in the fashion that we did.”
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