J.R. Smith Clapped Back At Stephen A. Smith For Saying Nike Hoodies Will Have White People Thinking It's 'Trayvon Martin Being Revisited'
Stephen A. Smith has gotten into a war of the words with NBA players before — most notoriously Kevin Durant last year.
But this past weekend, the ESPN First Take personality managed to draw the ire of none other than J.R. Smith.
The point of the Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard's contention? A comment Stephen A. made last week on his ESPN radio show over J.R. rocking a Nike hoodie on the bench and how the image could evoke memories of Trayvon Martin.
“In Game 1, when they played against Boston, J.R. Smith was sitting on that bench with a hoodie on,” Stephen A. said on his radio show last week, as reported by ESPN.com. “I don’t know why the hell Nike made these damn uniforms that had hoods attached to it, by the way. You got a lot of white folks in the audience that are gonna think this is Trayvon Martin being revisited, and I’m not joking about it. The bench is no place for someone to be wearing hoodies."
J.R. wasn't feeling Stephen A.'s remarks at all and took to his Twitter account Saturday to thoroughly drag the ESPN personality as the two went back and forth on Twitter over the course of the day.
Here's some of their back-and-forth Twitter exchange and Stephen A.'s response to J.R.'s clapback on First Take this morning. J.R. really called him an "#UncleTom to the fullest." Ouch!
Here's Stephen A.'s full hoodies remark about J.R. Smith that irked the Cavs guard
Were you feeling what the ESPN personality had to say about the Nike hoodies or was this a severe reach?
Upon learning of Stephen A.'s comments, J.R. clapped back with a series of tweets Saturday
DAMN! Do you agree with him when he asks, "What does me wearing my hoodie on the bench have anything to do with reminding 'white people'?"
J.R. also re-tweeted and responded to Cavs teammate Isaiah Thomas commenting about Stephen A.
The Cavs are firing shots at Stephen A.
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later in the day, Stephen A. caught wind of J.R.'s backlash and responded with a series of tweets of his own
But all that did was set J.R. off more.
The cavs guard was up early Monday morning to re-tweet people criticizing the ESPN talking head
Wow.
And he had more to say where that came from, getting his Twitter fingers on for a series of more messages, including calling Stephen A. an '#UncleTom to the fullest'
Well damn! That escalated quickly, didn't it?
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On 'First Take,' Stephen A. made it clear that he doesn't have any problem personally with J.R. Smith and actually likes him as a person, instead opting to slam the veteran guard's lackluster play thus far this season
He said maybe J.R. should be wearing the hoodie to "hide" from his sub-par play, which includes him shooting a dreadful 25.9 percent from the field early into this year.
And for good measure, Stephen A. also tweeted this after the show
When it comes to this back-and-forth argument between Stephen A. Smith and J.R. Smith, who's right?