J.R. Smith seen on video beating up alleged truck vandal: 'I chased him down and whooped his ass'
Amid political protests and violence in Los Angeles, a video has emerged of NBA veteran J.R. Smith beating up a person he accused of vandalizing his truck.
In the video published by TMZ, Smith can be seen repeatedly kicking and punching the person on a Los Angeles street. The alleged vandal is on the ground at the beginning of the video before fleeing as a crowd begins to form.
Smith had posted a preemptive video on in his Instagram story on Saturday explaining the situation, alleging the person had broken the window of his truck in a residential area.
His full explanation:
“I just want you all to know right now, before you all see this s--- somewhere else. One of these little motherf---ing white boys didn’t know where he was going and broke my f---ing window in my truck. Broke my s---. This was a residential area. No stores over here. None of that s---. Broke my window, I chased him down and whooped his ass.
“So when the footage comes out and you all see it, I chased him down and whooped his ass. He broke my window. This ain’t no hate crime. I ain’t got no problem with nobody and nobody got no problem with me. There’s a problem with the motherf---ing system, that’s it. The motherf---er broke my window and I whooped his ass. He didn’t know who window he broke and he got his ass whooped.
Smith offered deeper insight into the incident on the Pat McAfee Show on Monday, expressing regret that his children saw him doing what he called “a random act of stupidness.”
“If he would’ve seen me, and seen somebody outside the car or outside the house or whatever, do I think he would’ve broke it? Absolutely not. It was just a random act of stupidness, and I give him that. But, that ass whooping was a random act of stupidness on my behalf.”
“When it happened, I seen red. Then when I finally snapped to, I was so... I’m still disappointed with myself. For me, I’m 34 years old. I have 4 little girls at home. I don’t want that image, regardless of the fact whether it was right or wrong, I don’t want them to have that image of their dad being capable of doing that, and doing something like that.”
Smith most recently played in the NBA during the 2018-19 season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, though he hasn’t explicitly announced his retirement.
Known for his strong outside shooting and eccentric behavior, Smith played in the league for 15 seasons. That career was highlighted by a championship in 2016 alongside his friend LeBron James (the two were seen riding bikes together the same day of the truck incident).
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