Longtime NBA player J.R. Smith said he beat up a looter in Los Angeles on Sunday because the man broke the window in his truck during protests in the area.
The video showing Smith kicking and punching the man was released by TMZ Sports and Smith addressed the incident via a different video.
“He didn’t know whose window he broke and he got his (expletive) whooped,” Smith said of the man.
Smith’s vehicle was parked in a residential area.
The video shows Smith kicking a man on the ground multiple times. When the man finally gets up, Smith delivers a powerful right punch to the man’s face. The man proceeds to scurry away.
“One of these (expletive) white boys didn’t know where he was going and broke my (expletive) window in my truck,” Smith said during his explanation video.
Smith, 34, said his display of violence was solely due to the truck incident and wasn’t related to racial tension that has been soaring since George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis on Monday.
Floyd, a black man, died after white officer Derek Chauvin kneeled on his neck for several minutes.
“I don’t have no problem with nobody and nobody has problems with me,” Smith said. “I have a problem with the (expletive) system.”
Smith, who is currently an NBA free agent, ranks 13th in NBA history with 1,929 career 3-pointers. He has a 12.5 scoring average in 15 seasons with the then-New Orleans Hornets, Denver Nuggets, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers.
—Field Level Media
