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Over a year ago, J.R. Smith was unexpectedly suspended by the Cleveland Cavaliers for a game for conduct deemed detrimental to the team. At the time, Cavs coach Tyronn Lue declined to share much info about what sparked the decision beyond saying:
“He was great this morning. Something happened after shoot-around, so that’s all the details I’m going to give to you.”
However, it didn’t take long before people discovered the “something” in question involved Smith throwing a bowl of soup at an assistant coach for reasons no one entirely understood at the time.
Thankfully, we now have some insight into the incident thanks to Damon Jones, the assistant coach who was at the receiving end of a bowl of chicken tortilla soup courtesy of Smith.
We FINALLY get some juicy, soupy details about the J.R. Smith soup-throwing incident thanks to the very classy recipient of said soup, @D19J pic.twitter.com/xKzryDJmGj
— Jalen & Jacoby (@JalenandJacoby) March 19, 2019
Jones, who was fired by the Cavs last October as they attempted to rebuild following the departure of LeBron James, recently appeared on Jalen & Jacoby to describe exactly how things went down and shed some much-needed light on the now-infamous moment:
“For a long time, I refused to talk about the soup incident. It’s OK now because I’ve moved on. Me and J.R. have talked about it and he apologized…
It was the bowl and the soup and it was the first bowl out of the pot so it was hot as hell. It went everywhere. I was standing up and it hit me in the shoulder, arm, everywhere. It hit the wall. It was a mess.”
It’s still unclear exactly what provoked Smith in the first place but Jones says they gave each other the silent treatment for three months following the throw before finally squashing their beef.
J.R. Smith’s gonna J.R. Smith.