Two-time NBA champion JR Smith was arrested Monday in Texas on a charge of family violence assault causing bodily injury, according to Hunt County jail records.
TMZ reported that Smith was pulled over “after an automatic license plate reader flagged the vehicle he was driving and alerted officers to an active warrant.”
He was then taken into custody and booked into the Hunt Country Detention Center. No additional details about the arrest were available at the time.
Smith entered the NBA straight out of high school in 2004 and finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting in 2005. He found his stride over five seasons with the Nuggets and spent much of his 16-year career as a scoring spark off the bench. He finished in the top five of Sixth Man of the Year voting three times, winning the award with the Knicks in 2013.
His career also included championships with LeBron James and the Cavaliers in 2016 and the Lakers in 2020.
Smith’s career produced plenty of memorable moments, but the one that lingers most came in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals. With the game tied late, Smith grabbed George Hill’s missed free throw and, instead of taking a potential game-winning shot, dribbled the ball back out near half court because he believed the Cavs were ahead by one. The game went to overtime, Cleveland lost, and the Warriors completed the sweep.
After basketball, Smith enrolled at North Carolina A&T State University and joined the golf team as a 35-year-old freshman. Over four years with the Aggies, he played in seven collegiate tournaments and excelled in the classroom. He posted a 4.0 GPA in his first college semester and was named the school’s Academic Athlete of the Year in 2022.
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