Several players from the 2016 championship Cleveland Cavaliers, are celebrating the 10th anniversary of that achievement on the golf course. J.R. Smith is among the group that went across the pond. However, according to him, he hasn’t been invited back by the organization he helped bring a championship to.
In a recent episode of The Pivot Podcast, Smith talked about the importance of teams taking care of their former players. He pointed to the New York Knicks as the gold standard of doing this. And in the process, he singled out the Cavs for not being up to snuff in this department.
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“I won a whole chip in Cleveland, they haven’t invited me back once, and it’s been 10 years,” Smith said. “This is our 10-year anniversary. They haven’t invited me back once.”
The official Cavs account on X replied to this with a video of Smith being at a game during the 2022-23 season and saying that he “ALWAYS has a home here.”
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Whether or not Smith was invited back for that appearance is unknown. What we can say is that he hasn’t been among the former players who’ve been asked to pull the sword out during player introductions before recent playoff games. Anderson Varejao, Booby Gibson, and Matthew Dellavedova all did so during the Cavs’ run to the Eastern Conference Finals. Smith didn’t.
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It’s worth pointing out that Smith and the Cavs’ relationship didn’t end well. He was a member of the 2018-19 team, the first one that didn’t feature LeBron James after four-straight trips to the NBA Finals. The Cavs struggled at the start of the season, fired head coach Ty Lue, and traded away many of their veteran players before the deadline.
Smith wasn’t among the players dealt, but he wasn’t a part of the team after late November. He and the Cavs agreed to part ways after he played in only 11 games that year. The Cavs weren’t able to find a new home for him with a trade, and ended up waiving him the following summer. Smith played part of one more season as he appeared in six games for the bubble championship Los Angeles Lakers.
We don’t know whether or not the exit still lingers over that relationship. What we do know is that Smith was an indispensable part of the 2016 championship team and played a large role in a group that made four consecutive Finals. He should be celebrated for his role in bringing a championship to Cleveland for decades to come. Hopefully, we see that come to fruition in the coming years.
