The Ringer NBA Show - 'Redefined: J.R. Smith': Growing Up in the Limelight, Getting a College Education, and Being in the NBA With J.R. Smith | Weekends With Wos

Episode Date: March 31, 2023

Wos is back this weekend with an incredible guest, two-time NBA champion J.R. Smith, to discuss his new four-part docuseries, 'Redefined: J.R. Smith,' which unravels the story of J.R.'s resilience. Throughout the podcast, the two discuss his early career and what it was like being drafted at the age of 19, the role of the media and how he dealt with the limelight, his time spent going back to college at North Carolina A&T, and winning his championships. Host: Wosny Lambre Guest: J.R. Smith Producers: Jade Whaley and Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When you're lost in the darkness, look for the pod. Specifically, the Prestige TV podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network, where we're breaking down every new episode of HBO's The Last of Us. On Sunday nights, grab your battery and join Van Lathen and Charles Holmes for an instant reaction to the latest episode. Then head back to the QZ on Tuesdays for a deep dive with Joanna Robinson and Mallory Rubin. From character arcs to video game adaptation choices, story themes to needle drops, we'll parse every inch of this cordyceps-coded universe.

Watch out for mouth tendrils and follow along on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everybody? Just wanted to give you guys a warning about the sort of audio quality on the JR interview. He gave us some great stuff. He was really candid and had a great time. Unfortunately, the audio isn't quite up to the standard that you guys are used to on the feed, but you'll still be able to get some great stuff out of JR.

So just wanted to let you guys know about that at the top. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to the latest edition of Weekends. I'm your host, Big Waz. a.k.a. Wazni Lambray, and I'm joined by a very, very special and distinguished guests today. He's a two-time NBA champion. You know him as one of the most colorful, well-known, exciting guys of his generations of players in the NBA. And now he's a TV star. Shoutouts. And welcome to the show. J.R. Swish. What's going on, brother? I appreciate that. I want to go that far. Well, you know, man, shout-outs to the good people at Amazon who were nice enough to send me some screeners.

I was able to catch a couple of the first episodes of your new show, which is called J.R. Smith Redefined. What struck me, man, is somebody, we're really close in age. So I've been following your career essentially since that McDonald's All-American game. And you're not somebody who did a lot of media. Your name was always in the press, but it wasn't necessarily you doing media. And so watching this out, I realize it's the first time that JR is like doing media in a real way. And I just want to know the process of even coming to the decision to do something like this that is so candid and open. I mean, it really came from like an hour to hour talking to friends and conversations.

like, and this is something I really wanted to do because it was being so open. For me, it was like, I really took it out of myself and replaced it until you wonder me, I was like if I seen something like this when I was younger, I'd been

before 18 and 22 years old, even 25 to opposed to being the 37 girl going and, you know, I hadn't go through what I went through. So for me, it was something I felt like it was more like I had doing the next generation to propose

to just you know being so isolated and cut off everybody yeah I think even in just the first two episodes

you guys do a good job of sort of explaining a growth of maturity it's hard for people to understand you know because we don't do

high schoolers anymore right you were some of one of the last guys that was able to come into the league straight from high school a guy is

18 years old and he's thrown into this new professional environment and obviously there were growing pains and you guys talk about that in the doc why do you think it was important for you to talk about some of those tougher times in your career and just sort of put this on display I mean because for me again it's like you know each one of the young generation to know but not alone in this fight and certain stories that come out with certain players and stuff like that and then we see my story

you can understand like not even not even so much how to do what I do but like they understand like it's a fine line that comes with this lifestyle and you know to me I always just trying to explain it as a fictitious lifestyle because it's not

a lifestyle that everybody doesn't drip a meal and it's not it's not equal and no forms of passage you know I'm like everybody I've got friends and everything else

but when police see me they see me when police see my friend and just see another brother you know what I'm saying and so a lot of us it's hard to battle that it's hard to explain that

because we not we not close into that so especially when you go from a high school it's been really to where nobody knows you and everybody knows you and you feel as well

you can you know you start getting passes and certain walks of freedom that normally other people want to get and start getting by and certain places, people start treating you know what I'm saying? And a lot of us don't know how to

handle that when we get caught up in that and it's very quick to be caught up in that. So for the younger generation, I feel like that's one of my things I need to pass along. So, man, again, I do want to stay on the early part of your career because in the past few weeks, we've, in the NBA, we've seen, you know, some incidents with young guys,

sort of fucking up publicly, right? Like, that's just, that's just what it is, in my opinion. This young guys making bad decisions, which is just what young people do. I did it, you did it. Fortunately for me, my screw-ups didn't happen on TV and in front of millions of people on social media and in media. What do you remember about first coming into the league and, you know, sort of immediately understanding like, whoa, this is a lot different than what I was anticipating before I got here?

I mean, for me, like, I grew up, I came through a time to where there wasn't social media, and then it was social media, you know? So, like, a lot of it wasn't for me. So I kind of learned early on, like, the dudes and don't, and kind of got slid apart of that bad boy toward that, that thud. So, for me, like, the thing I remember the most about it is, like, people really feel like, I'm a bad person. Like, I'm just a person, and I know who my parents have raised.

I know the community that came from, like, who rocked me. I know the type of person I am. Even, like, when I would go from a team to another team, and they would hear one thing and another thing about you throughout the league, and you get to some equipment managers or trainers. And, like, I didn't even think he was like that, you know what I'm saying? Like, but just that person that saying on your name,

it gives everybody so much leeway to just like, oh, he's hard. ass of a bright and matter. You know what I'm saying? So to me, like, the integrity of what's your name carried, it means a lot. And I don't think a lot of the young guy

to understand that because I didn't at the time. You know what I didn't understand, like, how much weight my name was carried when, even after the ball stops bouncing, you know what I'm saying? For the end of the day, especially you got kids, you got a bet.

I mean, you started a lineage. Like, that's going to pass down on and on and on. And to me, I would only want positive and more positive things on my, you know, on my name as to go with my integrity of who I am as a person.

Right on. One of the dope things about the doc, too, which I think is super telling, because I got to be honest with you, like when I see athlete-produced media, I'm really, really ready for, like, just a bunch of pom-pom waving for themselves. And I turn on your doc in one of the segments,

you're just straight up just highlighting the beauty of the culture, of the atmosphere of North Carolina A&T. Like, I thought that was just really cool and a really selfless actor on your part to make your TV show about highlighting an HBCU. You and I both know North Carolina A&T doesn't have access to the same resources as Duke University or UNC.

or NC State. Why do you think it was important for you to highlight A&T that way on your show? Well, for me, I come from a very family oriented background.

Like, I have nine aunts and uncles on one side, another nine and ten on another side, and everybody pretty much got like four or five kids in between there, not more. And so, for me, I got a lot of first cousins.

I got a lot of second cousins. And my grandmother really, like held everything given. So for me, like, to really hold that down, like, when I went to A&T, I've never really felt like that up until, you know, I lost my grandmother when I was not. So I got to A&T, it was just like,

damn, like, I felt like I, especially a homecoming. When I see 60, 70-year-old women in sitting there playing cards, going back, talking about when they cross and everything else, and like, I inherited, like, a thousand grandmothers. You know what I'm saying?

And it was like so much of a family atmosphere that that's where I felt like that's where my basis was. And it's crazy because I was going out there so much in high school and playing tournaments and I had aspirations to go to Carolina. And I always wondered what drew me to Carolina and just so happened to be to go to the N&T and pose each other in. Man, I really enjoyed that homecoming piece because, you know, the grub, like you said, the music, band. It really just did a good job of highlighting that. And in another part, like I said, your show isn't the typical athlete-driven media. You portray a bunch of your teammates. These are

guys who, unlike J.R. Smith, haven't had a job for, you know, 20 years, a professional basketball job. Like, you have fully formed adult, right? And you're coming back and doing this thing of, you know, renewing your education and playing golf. But I love that you highlighted your teammates, these young students, and what their lives are like, man. Talk about being in close proximity with those guys on a day-to-day basis. I thought that was one of the coolest and most effective parts of the show as well. Yeah, it's really dope.

We got a really great group of young cats with AJ, X, and Diego, Martine. But being around them, it's like, that was a great opportunity because only really X and AJ really knew who I watched. But obviously, the brother was really hype and excited. You know, we got Diego, one's,

Venezuela, one was from Mexico, got another kid and my team's from staying. So they had no clue who I was. So it was really dope in that aspect to be, like, just one of the guys,

like, one of the regular, like, nobody looking at me just like, as a star or whatever. And really having to earn my way as far as, like, being accepted amongst a team.

Because, you know, everybody's just like, oh, it's easy to be just some new, worse to do, throwing money and just want to be a part of some or whatever it was. But when they seem to the fire in my eyes about the game, and how I keep it then. And that was something I had to really overcome, too, which was great in having to go through that feeling and that process all over again, because it hasn't been thought like that in a while. his basketball was like three months, you know, second major.

It wasn't like if I was on a big team, like, I didn't worry about making the team since I was like eight years old. So, I don't know. They're like they're individual, as individuals that are made, you know what I'm saying? Like, just finding out what they got to go through, just trying to do a laundry, running the study hall, got worried about going to this class,

and what girl they talk to them, What they're going through is just like sitting back looking at it as like, I'm a 37-year-old and I was playing with at the time, and they're the 18, 19, 20-year-olds, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, wow. But when I get to look at it from that aspect, I get an opportunity to really help them and shape them and mold them for the men that they're about to be,

and just like some of the guys did with me. Man, that's, I didn't even think about it that way, but that is a beautiful, full circle moment. I know a lot of people who are listening to this, and obviously there's NBA fans. So they're familiar with the idea that you are, because it made a lot of news when you first decided to walk on to the golf team. But I would ask you, as somebody who was a fan of your game,

literally watched your entire career, you are highly, like, whatever, you had athleticism and all of that stuff, but you were a highly skilled individual. Could dribble, could shoot, could pass it, understood defenses and offenses. And so what that means to me is you put a lot of work into those things. I want to know how much work you're putting into this golf thing.

Are you putting in as much work as you put into the hooping as you did to the golfing? No, I feel like it's in positive at this point. Like, because like even now, like, I don't play as much as I used to. Like, even just, like, pick up and stuff. And I still, like, literally wake up in the morning and thinking about moves and, you know, dribbling the ball, even though I'm not actually dribbling or even moving my hands like that.

I'm thinking about my shot and somebody would regard me, set back to me away. And I go throughout my day just thinking about, you know, different stuff like that. And then gradually I, like, you know, see me making golf swing and thinking about golf or backboard something like for me just, I don't, I can't turn off. Like, it's just something that's just part of me. But spending that with, even like the physical aspect of it, like, putting that was timing on the golf. Of course, to me right now, it's just impossible because I'm just so bitter. You know what I mean?

Like basketball, when I was doing it, it came first. Because for one, it was the breadwinner, whatever thing I was doing. But it just had such a high demand. I can golfers more, but like you pick your schedule, if you want to play. So it's not like the demand isn't much hot. The NBA season is coming down to the wire, and now is the perfect time to download Fandu, America's number one sports book.

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visit www. www.1800 gambler.net in West Virginia. So I do want to get talking about your playing career because a lot of people, you know, like have a lot of interest in you personally, but also just the story of your career, me being a New York City guy, you know, born and raised. I'm not living in L.A., but I lived in New York for your whole time with the Knicks. Obviously, you know, playing in New Orleans and playing in Denver was one thing. But what would you say was the main difference by the time you got to the Knicks as far as just you as a basketball playing?

Like what that meant for your career? Like, it's just different now that you're playing in New York. I think the biggest difference, especially when I got to New York, because I was coming from China during that lockout. When I was in China, like, when I played for New Orleans, I played for Denver, I didn't have that opportunity to really, like, be the showcase, be the man. You know what I'm saying? So when it took me back to, like, almost like that high school days,

I was able to really develop and gain the confidence or handling the ball shoot. My big range is doing different things. Before, like, in New Orleans or Denver, you normally seen you can shoot a three or done. It was very little mid-range, playing pick and roll, stuff like that. My time I got to New York, my game was more well-rounded, so I had one more confidence in it. And I was at home. I'm from Jersey.

So my parents were catching a train. I was able to go home and get home-cooked meals whenever I wanted to do. I see my friends. I was so comfortable. It was that environment. I'm talking to just the energy of the city. You play for the next. It's like you need to win a chip.

You win four or five games in a row. Well, you get what I need to want. And for me, like, that aspect of it changed. We start playing four games and five nights. And it's at the time of that we playing Orlando, he's looking like, bro, we're about to, this is about to be a walking apart. And then you walk out to the garden and it's $22,000 and going crazy.

You're going to, like, let's get it. You know what I'm saying? It's different, like, it's a totally different atmosphere. On those slow days in Cleveland where we know we're about to go to the finals and you playing a bad team. It's just like... It's just another day. It's another day.

Well, you step up to the guard and this is a game. Sold out, people who ain't never been there going crazy. You fight pretty much at every game, celebrity roles. It's like, bro, I don't care what team are we. I don't care if we're playing as little kids. I'm about going to try and get 50. I love that. And we talked about a lot of the media scrutiny,

Because again, like, there's media in New Orleans. There's media in Denver. But it's different in New York. Did that stuff weigh in you? How much attention did you pay to it? Just tell me about your experience with, like, being in that kind of fishbowl. I mean, New York, you have my personal attention to it. Because I saw the, like, the organization paid the attention to it.

And so, like, when you look at, like, even from our standpoint, where we was at, we had a great coach, we had a great GM when we was on a row. And one little thing come out of paper, it was like, oh, yeah, maybe Chicago changed this up, change that up. And before you know, we started hiring

and firing people, and just like, what's going on? So, like, to me, and you look at the teams around, whether it be the Giants, or the Yankees, whether it be the Mets, whether it be the Jets. Once in New York meeting, get a hold of just a small little win, everything started changing.

because they run the fans. You know, the fan base just literally runs the thing. And it's crazy. I've never seen nothing like it. Like, it's wild. And the thing about New York is like, everybody, you can't go nowhere

without seeing the Knickman. And we play for the Knicks. It's impossible. It's impossible. Right. And they believe in there, everything they heard on ESF, and Fox Sports, whatever outlet they hear.

And that's the, the story, they believe in and everything. Like, damn, bro, you out to 4 o'clock in the morning, like, do you do? Like, what do you fucking? What does it matter to you? For one, and two, like, I'm a grown-ass known. Like, what are you talking about?

You hear that shit on fans, you hear that room everywhere. So, once you're like, when you hear it in whether it be social media, whether it be ESPN, whatever, you hear it for sure. So all that blocking it out, we place for them, I don't want to hear you

block it out. This is impressive. It's crazy. Because in preparation for talking to you today, like, obviously all of the memes and shit about J.R. drinking Hennessy, and I remember when you corrected the record, it was like, I don't even drink cognac. I'm a vodka

guy. Like, Rihanna wants, like, the post covered some comment, Rihanna put on a post. And I'm like, damn, like the New York Post is covering an Instagram comment from one

the most famous people in the world. Like, that's just a whole other level of that's crazy. That's crazy. You know what I mean? That's why I wonder how you were dealing with that kind of stuff. Yeah, I mean, for me, like, fortunately, I had such a passion

for the game. I just continuously fell in love with the game all over again. Any time some shit came up or whatever, I just continuously fell in the game all over again. Try to read and bit myself throughout how I played. And then Hopefully my talent was able to outweigh the bullshit.

So I want to talk about your time in Cleveland, man, in that championship in 2016. Because for me, I feel like your time with the Cavs solidified you as one of my personal favorite players. Because one, obviously, everybody always knew you were super talented. But I think on a championship level team, you got to show that you were a winning player. right? Like, you were guarding the best perimeter player at times on the other team. You were that guy that was stretching the defense around what LeBron was doing on pick and roll. Like, I just remember your game sort of rounded into shape. I just want to know, like, what was it about playing on those teams that you felt like

just sort of transformed the type of player that you were? I mean, my time I got to Cleveland, I was in a situation to where I was, the year before, I had one six man. The next year, I had got hurt, then we got treated. So for me, it was like, I'm still, I still got my bag. Like, I'm still in the mix. Like, I'm still on the road. And Cleveland, at the time, they didn't even want me. So when Brian was like, oh, no, that's my man, like, for sure.

And they was like, yeah, we're going to grab it. It just so happened at something. that just got hurt. So the way I ended up starting, just so happened, it just literally just happened through. So you had a relationship with LeBron prior to the trade to Cleveland?

Yeah, I think the Bronx was 15. Wow. So when that happened, it was just like, okay, we just go and test it out and just throw them in there. And once they figured out all he stretched the defense,

and he actually played defense, it was just like, oh, this is like a matchmate in heaven for what he need. You know what I'm saying? So to me, looking at it, we got Braun, who's obviously Brown, Kai, who's going to go for 30 whenever he wants, it's not more. And Ken, we just came in from average 20 and 20.

And it was like, what y'all need me to score for? I want to stay in the court more than anything. I got to play defense. So all I got to do is play D and make shots and make y'all look good. I look good. So, if I look good, then we win, then we all get. So I want to tell you a quick, funny story. Like, I had just started in my job as covering the league, like, around 2016.

And so I was able to go to the NBA finals in 2016. And I went to Cleveland for games three and four. And I remember y'all lost game four. Y'all was down three one. And I remember going to a bar close to the stadium. And there were these two girls, these young white women, they were crying. And I was like, this series is. over. It's a rap.

At what point did you, for real, believe, like, yo, we're probably going to come back and do this. Did you never wavered? Did you feel like you were doing it the whole time? At what point did you genuinely, honestly think, like, oh, we're coming back in this thing?

See, thing to me, I never felt like we was out of it, man. I kept trying to, like, build that confidence with in the team because we were, like, we was literally, like, one, one, tip away from just our own self-confidence with beating them. I'm saying?

And like, it was messed up because the year before we was on the road, I get hurt in Atlanta. Ken gave his arm pulled, a shoulder pulled up, soccer in Boston. So, like, we was at full force. He was ready to go.

And then that happens. Not to say we were to beat them in there, but like, the whole trajectory of everything just had just changed. And then once they already, once they had their confidence, after winning, you see Steph going 40, 50, shooting crazy, like, Clay going nuts.

So they accomplished us already through the roof. So by the time, we got even back to the finals, which was really, after we won 40, 40, 4-1, or something like that. In the previous series, it was like our first anniversary that we had to do. So it was just like, damn, we downed,

like, to them, and we fall strong? Like, it's no way. So to me, like, first of all, last year, to me, in my opinion, we mocked them up. We went two years in the world back. We go back to back, easy. Then you got to go to KD and do all that. So to me, it was like, I'm over here like, literally like, oh, bro, there's no way to come off with him.

I'm looking at town. Like, no, you can best. Like, do we ever see him do this? Like, brunt, boy, like, come on. And luckily, they did their thing. 145, 45, the one that had 40, the other than 39, it worked up. But for me, it never waited because I always felt like, and I mean, I'm going to be honest. I still felt like those two teams that we had, fully healthy, fully better than them.

Time for a pound we better than. I love, I love hearing that. And, you know, game seven, man, and again, they touch on it in the dock. That stretch in the third quarter, you really saved the game for the team. because it was a slog. This game ended up being in the freaking 90s, which never happens in the NBA anymore. It'll never happen again.

It'll never happen again. But like the offense was just in a stalemate and you took it upon yourself to take and make huge shots, man. Like to me, your fingerprints are all over that championship. I appreciate it. I give a lot of credit to James Jones and Mike Miner, because coming in the half time,

it was really on me, like, bro, because it bests me up because the first year, the first game of that series, I slide on the floor and I think it was Bogget, and I got to gash on the bottom of my shit in and pull the skin off of it, and it's lighter. So every time I, like,

catch the ball or anything, you feel, like, you know, anything with your hand, you feel all of that. So by time the game seven came out, it finally felt like, okay, I can, like, finally feel like I could do something. So the whole time, I'm really, I'm actually tempted. But them tell, like, them coming and bring in real of me in the hell I'm like, you got to do something.

Like, you just out here right now, bro. And you've got way more to your game. And when I, the first couple shots I get, the first looks, I'm taking on. And I'm, when I get into that mode, it's like, I don't care what the coach say. I don't care what one of my teammates say, that's just, that's just what I happen. Unless you don't give me the ball, and when by the time I do get it, it's going up for sure. And fortunately, I had that confidence because those are the shots

that I've stopped in my whole life. Like, I've always practiced off-bound shots and stuff. So when people closing out on me left and right, those are things I shoot till today walking around. So for me, for it to actually happen, it was like a, you know, just be living with something that I already do. I love it, man. And JR, man, you know, you caught a lot of shit in the media throughout the course of your career.

However, no teammate has literally ever said a bad thing about you, ever at any stop, at any point of your career. So I think that shows what type of dude you were when you played. I really enjoyed checking out the first couple of episodes, Doc. I really think people are going to be surprised about some of the things that you open up about on there. And I do think it's a dope piece of media, man. Thank you for coming on our show today, brother. Absolutely, man. I appreciate you having me.

We love... Can't wait to meet you in person, man. We do it against a time. Yes, sir. Absolutely.