Former Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith was filmed kicking a man as he lay in the street. He said he had chased and beaten up the ‘white boy’ for breaking his window, and didn’t consider it a hate crime.
Footage of the violent incident, which reportedly happened in Los Angeles amid protests over police brutality and targeting people of color, was published by TMZ Sports on Sunday. It shows Smith and an unidentified man lying on the ground.
The NBA star gets up and kicks the other man several times. When the blond-haired person gets up, Smith punches him before letting him run away. A couple of men, who appear to be Smith’s friends, grab him by his arms and walk him away.
Smith, who is black, later posted a video in which he explained the incident. He claimed the other man in the video was “one of these little, motherf**king white boys” and had angered him by breaking a window of his truck.
JR Smith: “One of these little MF whiteboys broke my window so i chased him down and whooped his ass” pic.twitter.com/NfyE3BHIxF
“This ain’t no hate crime,” he added. “I ain’t got no problem with nobody that ain’t got no problem with me. It’s a problem with the motherf**king system, that’s it.”
Smith has been a professional basketball player since 2004 and played for the Cavaliers between 2015 and last year, when he became a free agent.
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