Former New York Knicks Chris Smith and J.R. Smith. Photo Credit: Sports Illustrated

In Game 5 of the NBA Finals Monday night, Cavs guard J.R. Smith made the last basket of the 2016-17 season. A three-pointer with with 15 seconds remaining.

Smith, who went 9-of-11 from the field and 7-of-8 from downtown, finished Game 5 one 3 pointer shy of tying Ray Allen’s record for the most in an NBA Finals game.

Smith finished the game with 25 points.

He also made sportsbooks happy! According to Business Insider’s Tyler Lauletta, going into the game, the Warriors were listed in most sportsbooks as 9- or 9.5-point favorites, meaning that for Warriors bettors to cash in on their tickets, the Warriors had to win by 10 or more points. With Smith’s deep 3, he made everybody in Vegas happy as the Warriors won Game 5 129-120 and become the NBA Finals champs.

Smith, the 18th pick in the 2004 NBA Draft out of St. Benedicts High School in Newark, NJ likes to have fun. A former New York Knick, he was often the subject of criticism for going out and partying in the New York City area. He found solace in the change of scenery that brought both he and Iman Shumpert to Cleveland last year. They’d end up winning a championship too, and many got amnesia that they’d ever criticized Smith.

On an episode of Scoop B Radio released last night, Chris Smith, brother and former Knicks teammate of J.R. Smith schooled me on why that is so. “I think people got it confused about the hanging out and the partying,” Chris Smith told me on Scoop B Radio.

Check out Chris Smith and Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson’s chat on Scoop B Radio 

“It’s evident in New York everybody hangs out and parties it’s just the level and the platform of the people that you hang out with. Pictures are being taken and stuff like that so everybody is going to think that you’re always out. And if the media portrays you in one way, people will take it and run with it. So that only leaves people who are not in your life to believe that they are in your life.”

Chris Smith had a good high school career at St. Benedict prep. He averaged 18.8 points, 5.3 rebounds, 4.9 assists and 2.8 steals in his final season at the school. During his junior year at the University of Louisville, Smith averaged a shade under 10 points per game for a Cardinals team that finished that season with a 25-10 record.

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The post Chris Smith on J.R. Smith: “If the media portrays you in one way, people will take it and run with it.” appeared first on RESPECT. | The Photo Journal of Hip-Hop Culture.