During a recent appearance on the All Things Covered podcast, JR Smith bluntly told hosts Patrick Peterson and Bryant McFadden the one teammate he didn’t like. And now that teammate’s wife is coming to his defense.
“Throughout my whole career, it’s only one teammate I really don’t like. And he know that. And everybody else, I’m just cool with,” Smith told Peterson and McFadden. “This dude Sam Dekker, dog. I can’t – this dude. He did some bulls— on the bus one day, talking some Trump s—, and I just wasn’t having it.”
Dekker and Smith were teammates for just a few weeks with the Cavaliers in 2018. But despite their brief tenure together, it was enough time for Smith to decide he doesn’t like Dekker.
According to Deadspin, Dekker was surprised by Smith’s opinion of him. “Well I am just as confused as y’all,” Dekker tweeted and later deleted. “I’m pretty simple, I’ve never been one to get into politics. Especially ‘Trump s—.’ I’ve never been a Trump guy, so this blindsided me.”
It wasn’t clear if Smith was saying Dekker had been a vocal supporter of the president or if he used “Trump s – t” as a term to encompass what he deems examples of ethnocentrism. But after alluding to an incident “on the bus,” Smith also referenced a question that Dekker asked, without specifically saying what it was.
“The question he asked, it’s a thought pattern. You were taught that. It’s the hate you give,” Smith said. “The privilege he has was taught to him, and he took heed of it and run with it even further than somebody … who was oblivious to what they have and the life they lived. Because some people just go through their life not necessarily knowing, but not aware and privy to someone else’s circumstances. He’s a person who’s just very aware of somebody else’s circumstances and want to keep them there, as opposed to try to help him elevate up. And I don’t respect anything about that.”
After the above comments from the All Things Covered podcast started making headlines earlier this week, Dekker’s wife Olivia-Harlan took to Twitter to say they were “extremely inaccurate and unfair.” “Consider the source,” added Harlan-Dekker, who is an ESPN reporter and the daughter of famed broadcaster Kevin Harlan.
In his response to Harlan-Dekker, Smith may have tipped everyone off to what the shameful question “on the bus” was.
For all of his off the court antics, Smith hasn’t had many public bouts with teammates during his career. LeBron James even brought him to the Lakers this year, despite watching Smith blow an NBA Finals game for his Cavaliers in 2018.
Dekker is currently playing overseas in the Turkish basketball league. His wife, Olivia Harlan-Dekker has contributed as a sportscaster for ESPN, Westwood One and the Big Ten Network. Earlier this year she also sang the national anthem before a World TeamTennis event, where she was criticized by many on social media for wearing a Black Lives Matter sticker.
Brandon Contes is a former reporter for BSM, now working for Awful Announcing. You can find him on Twitter @BrandonContes or reach him by email at Brandon.Contes@gmail.com.
