Rumors

Former Cleveland Cavaliers teammates J.R. Smith and Richard Jefferson reunited Thursday, but not on the basketball court. The duo, who won an NBA Championship with the Cavs in 2016, appeared on the HBO Max series “Hacks.” In season 5, episode 5 of the Emmy-winning comedy, Smith and Jefferson play themselves, competing in a fictionalized celebrity edition of “The Amazing Race.”

Cleveland Plain Dealer

In their only lines in the episode, Smith and Jefferson tell “Amazing Race” host Phil Keoghan that they’re competing on behalf of the United Negro College Fund, which supports historically Black colleges and universities across the country. In real life, Smith is set to graduate this month from North Carolina A&T State University, an HBCU in Greensboro.

Cleveland Plain Dealer

J.R. Smith, 40, was at Madison Square Garden to see the Knicks dominate the Philadelphia 76ers in a 137-98 win on Monday, May 4, giving New York a 1-0 edge in the second-round series. But Smith, who played for the New York Knicks for four seasons, became a victim of the chaos as the celebrations poured into the city streets. As seen in a video shared by New York Basketball, fans became rowdy while celebrating the playoff win, and Smith got caught in the middle of the raucous.

People

Two-time NBA champion J.R. Smith will graduate from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University during spring 2026 commencement, earning a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies–applied cultural thought from the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the university announced.

WFMY

University officials say Smith’s path underscores the idea that it is never too late to pursue higher education, take on new challenges and redefine personal goals. Smith is expected to speak ahead of commencement about his experience at A&T, the significance of earning his degree and the message he hopes to share with others considering their own educational paths.

WFMY

Dennis Schroeder: “With Atlanta, we won more than sixty games and really believed we could win the championship. The chemistry was there. Then we played Cleveland in the Eastern Conference Finals. In the first game, J.R. Smith hit a bunch of threes, LeBron felt good in front of our home crowd, and they beat us badly. Then they won again. We went to Cleveland telling ourselves we were still alive, but then it became 3-0 and eventually we got swept by LeBron James in his prime. At some point you have to admit that a guy like that, with a team defending at that level around him, was just too much. It was the same with Denver against the Lakers in 2023. Sometimes another team is just better in that round. But giving up is never the answer. Even at 0-3, you still think you can win the next game.”

YouTube

Theo Pinson: You were on two championship teams. Lakers and Cavs. Which team was better? We go head-to-head. Which team win? JR Smith: Cavs. Not even close. Pinson: Not close?! JR Smith: I say it's not close because like with Lakers we got an older Rajon Rondo, got obviously an older LeBron James, an older Anthony Davis… In Cleveland you had Kyrie Irving. First of all, K, nobody on that Lakers team checking him. Nobody. Kevin Love… (…) AD was definitely gonna cook, but T the way Double T (Tristan Thompson) play though, I don't know. I don't know. I can't say he was going to cook because Double T like he knows how to get off the f*cking skin though. Like he got that little dirty Canadian play.

YouTube

JR Smith on Jaylen Brown: It's always been his team. Why we got to keep talking about it? Jaylen Brown is a leader. He guards everybody. (…) Always been his team though. Charlie Villanueva: I don't know about always. JR Smith: It's his team for the players. I'm pretty sure it's his team. For everybody else in the media, from the outside, it's Jayson Tatum's team. That's what they want it to look like. Theo Pinson: So, you're saying that they are putting the perception out there that it's JT's team, but internally it’s Jaylen Brown's team. JR Smith: Jaylen Brown is the leader of that team 100 percent. On and off the court.

YouTube

Danny Green reacts to Grant Williams’ claim that LeBron James had a penthouse during the 2020 NBA Bubble: “I was in section 8, but they just stopped testing people. So, we called it section 8 cuz it was the hallways that smelled like tree. Sh*t was crazy. The stench was crazy. So, like our hallway, we had JR, you know, he was on the live going crazy. You know what I’m saying? But, you know, we had guys that, like to partake. Yeah. So, my hallway had it. But, you know Bron was right down the hall. We all on the same floor.”

x.com

Knicks Videos: Jose Alvarado says it was "pretty cool" to see J.R. Smith courtside tonight: "The fanbase is obviously outrageous in here. It just gets you excited. Especially with guys like that, I've seen him as a child do a lot of crazy buckets in this building."

Twitter

Beyond JR Smith, Green picked on the scrappy guard, Matthew Dellavedova. It’s safe to say the Golden State Warriors star is not a fan of his hoops game. “I don’t think MJ had many guys that went through that. [Matthew Dellavedova] stinks,” Green added. “He won two games in the NBA Finals with him, [Dellavedova] stinks. I got a lot of respect for Delly… Stinks! Completely stinks. To win with guys like that… MJ wasn’t winning with Matthew Dellavedova.”

Sports Illustrated

Tyronn Lue: “Moving over six inches on the bench—that’s what people don’t understand. It’s tough. Especially when it happens midway through the season. We had just gone to the Finals. Lost Game 6 without Kevin Love and Kyrie. And now I’m being asked to replace Coach Blatt, who had done a hell of a job. If we didn’t make it back to the Finals—or at least to Game 7—I was going to be viewed as a failure. And that pressure? Man, it was real.” “I didn’t even know if I could do it. You’re taking over halfway through the year—no training camp, no time to implement your own system. You’ve got to stick to what’s already there. And on top of that, you’re coaching the best player in the world. That adds another level of pressure. It was tough.” “But I’ve got to give credit to K-Love, Kyrie, Bron, JR, Tristan—those guys told me: ‘We got your back 100%. Whatever you want to do, let’s do it.’ I told them, ‘I’m going to make some mistakes, but if we stick together, we’ll be fine.’ And they really had my back. All the way.”

YouTube

Where J.R. Smith sees disaster, Metta World Peace sees opportunity. The two former Knicks had two very different reactions to hearing the stunning news that the team fired Tom Thibodeau on Tuesday Smith lamented the news, posting to his Instagram story saying, “I don’t know what the f–k going on … I don’t get it … Back-to-back 50-win seasons, first time since when? Bro, it’s so bad I [direct messaged] Stephen A. Smith just to ask him, ‘How much is [Thibodeau] owed? What is going on?’ C’mon man! Damn!”

New York Post

LeBron James just took a walk down memory lane! The NBA star shared a photo of his former teammates, J.R. Smith and Kevin Love, on his Instagram Stories on Thursday, May 29. “My dogs right there!!” James, 40, wrote alongside an image of Smith, 39, and Love, 36, hugging it out. The heartfelt reunion on Thursday showed the former Cleveland Cavaliers players embracing one another. In a video shared by several outlets and the NBA, the two hold onto one another as they walk along the baseline, chatting in one another’s ear while on the court at Madison Square Garden after Game 5 of the Eastern Conference finals between the New York Knicks and Indiana Pacers.

People