J.R. Smith Refused To Give His Game-Worn Sneakers To A Fan Wearing A Warriors T-Shirt

The beauty of J.R. Smith is that you can always count on him to be exactly who he is. Say what you will about him, but you can never accuse him of being boring. In just the past few months, that’s entailed a dramatic PhunkeeDuck entrance to the Finals (and subsequent frowny-face PhunkeeDuck exit) and overplaying his hand in free agency so badly that he was forced to accept less money than he would’ve originally made had he not opted out of his deal.

But he’s also blessed us with this glorious half-court swish-bomb that earned a local military member a cool $30,000, followed by one of his signature “hallelujah, praise the lord!” celebrations, and an adorable Instagram post in which he proposed to his long-time girlfriend Shirley with a little help from their daughter Demi.

He was up to his old tricks again Monday night after the Cavs’ team scrimmage at Quicken Loans arena when he started to hand over his game-worn sneakers to a young fan, but quickly balked after noticing the kid was rocking a Golden State Warriors T-shirt. Apparently, Smith tried unsuccessfully to convince the kid to trade shirts with him, then promptly found another kid nearby wearing Cavs gear and handed his shoes to him instead.

It’s hard not to feel bad for the kid, but it’s also an important lesson in the perils of alienating some of the world’s most hyper-competitive athletes by wearing the shirt of the team who just beat them in a grueling six-game Finals series a few short months ago.