There are a lot of rumors about J.R. Smith floating around out there in the world, and for the most part, he shies away from addressing most of them. But on Tuesday, he made an exception after he caught wind of the fact that Jeremy Lin talked about one of those rumors during a radio appearance.
Lin was a guest on CBS Radio’s Boomer & Carton on Tuesday morning, and during his appearance, co-host Craig Carton asked him about something he had heard during Lin’s time with the Knicks. Carton inquired as to whether or not Lin had ever faced racial discrimination from any of his Knicks teammates and, in particular, Smith. Carton said that he had been told that some of Lin's teammates weren’t happy with the big contract he received from the Rockets in the wake of Linsanity. And while Lin didn’t confirm the rumor that Carton was referring to, he did talk at length about how racial issues have affected him over the years.
"I’ve never spoken to J.R. about it," he said (he starts talking about this particular issue at the 10-minute mark in the video above). "I’ve never spoken to whoever else you might think about it. So it’s hard for me because I don’t want to speculate. The one thing I will say is that race has been a huge part of my journey ever since I was a child trying to play basketball. So I do think there was always that type of component involved, but again, as I’ve always said, it’s a double-edged sword. It comes with the good, it comes with the bad. Yeah, sometimes I’m different…I look different and I’m treated different and that’s a negative thing, and in some ways, that’s a really positive thing. Like, Linsanity wouldn’t have happened if I was white or black or whatever. Part of the reason why it was so crazy is because I’m Asian. I think race plays a part into it, always has, and to what degree or how much to who felt what, I can’t specifically answer."
Lin didn’t place any blame whatsoever on Smith, but Smith apparently heard what he said and responded within just hours on Twitter. He strongly denied discriminating against Lin at any time in the past and said that racism is "never ok":
As we mentioned, it’s pretty rare to see Smith respond to a rumor about himself. But he didn’t waste any time when it came to addressing this one.
