Ah, this is the defiant, outraged, boastful J.R. Smith we’ve been missing.
Late Monday night, Smith — whose quiet summer had been marked by closed workouts with Carmelo Anthony and humble statements about wanting to be more of a leader for the revamped Knicks — lashed out on Instagram at critics real and imagined, boasting he’s on track to become one of the best shooters in NBA history.
“They said I wouldn’t make it! I did!” he wrote in a caption of a photo of some red sneakers. “They said I wouldn’t stay! This is my 11th yr! They said you can’t shoot like that in the league! I’m on pace to be one of the best shooters the game had ever seen! Bottom line what yall say don’t me sh@$ What I do says everything! #Gone”
One of the best shooters the game had ever seen? Surely Smith would need to marshal some evidence, some stats to back up the grandiose claim. Soon after, he added this photo to Instagram, presumably some chart of shooting prowess on which he is ranked 30th, just behind renowned deadeye and recent Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond:
The font is something of a giveaway: It’s the Wikipedia list of career 3-point scoring leaders, ranked in order of made 3s.
Smith uses a pretty tight crop, though, and leaves out his shooting percentage of .371, which is measurably worse than, say, Shane Battier’s (No. 37). Immediately behind Smith on the list is Allan Houston, a Knicks great now in the team’s front office, so wouldn’t want to highlight that either. Chuckers ahead of Smith on the list include: Nick Van Exel, Antoine Walker, Baron Davis.