J.R. Smith didn’t ladle out many details, but he did admit Saturday he was amused by the social media reaction to his one-game ban for throwing soup at Cavaliers assistant coach Damon Jones.
“Some of them were actually pretty funny,” Smith, who was banned for the Cavaliers’ loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, said of the “bisque-it ball” and “souperteam” cracks.
The Cavs had said only that he was suspended for conduct detrimental to the team, but details of the incident after Thursday morning’s shootaround soon leaked out.
“I understand that everything I do is going to have a meme or whatever behind it, that’s just part of the day and age we live in,” Smith said at shootaround on Saturday in preparation for the Cavs’ game against the Denver Nuggets. “If this was 15 years ago, nobody would have even knew. It’s just part of the game.”
Smith said declined to say whether he agreed with the team’s decision to have him sit out one game. “It’s not really my call,” he said. “More than anything, I talked to my teammates about it, everybody seemed cool. We moved on from it as a team, so whether it warranted a suspension or not, that’s not my job. I’m just here to play basketball.”
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said Thursday that Smith would be back in his starting spot on Saturday. Smith said he wouldn’t go into the game feeling he has something to prove.
“My state of proving myself to whoever is pretty much over with for me,” he said. “I’m just trying to get better for my teammates and try to play Cavs basketball the way we’ve been playing.”
Superstar teammate LeBron James had no comment on the whole affair. “Ain’t got nothing to do with me,” James said. “Momma told me a long time ago to mind your business.”
Meanwhile Boston Celtics small forward Gordon Hayward will not return this season despite showing significant progress on videos posted on his social media accounts, coach Brad Stevens told reporters Saturday afternoon.
Hayward has been sidelined since breaking his leg in the Celtics’ season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers. His recent posts, which include messages such as “one goal,” prompted some observers to question whether he might try to return late in the season or in the postseason as Boston aims for a championship. He recently was seen walking without a limp.
“He’s not playing this year,” Stevens told reporters in response to the speculation.
“I don’t know what else to say. Is he progressing? Yes. ... It’s great, and I think that the videos are great, too, because it continues to show the progress. Because sometimes when you’re in the midst of that long rehab, you don’t feel the progress of the day-to-day the way now we all might see a video or somebody that hasn’t seen him may see a video, and they say, ‘Man, he is really getting better.’ But he’s super long way away from even being in a 1-on-0 workout where he’s cutting.”
Hayward signed a four-year, $128mn contract with the Celtics before the start of the season. He has averaged 15.6 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game in 517 career contests – all but one of them with the Utah Jazz.
