J.R. Smith ranks 20th on the NBA's all-time three-pointers made list, so why hasn't one of the game's most prolific shooters participated in a three-point contest during All-Star Weekend? Smith feels like it's a conspiracy, given his off-the-court antics throughout the years, and he told the Akron Beacon Journal all about it over the weekend:
"You know they don’t want me there. You know they don’t want me part of All-Star festivities.”
His teammate LeBron James agrees with Smith and may go as far as to start a petition to get him an invite to this season's event in Toronto:
“The fact that he’s second when you look at how many [instances of] eight or more 3s he’s made in a game, he’s second behind Steph now. He’s never been invited. I think I might need to start making that petition. Us being the No. 1 team in the East, him shooting the ball the way he’s been shooting it, we need to try to get as many guys to All-Star as possible. Guys know in the league he’s an unbelievable 3-point shooter and he deserves an invite.”
Smith is shooting 39 percent from beyond the arc and can get hot at a moment's notice. There's also an amazing hashtag that's so good it may work against J.R. making an appearance in Canada. #PipeTheNorth was created by Cleveland-based writer Jason Lloyd and was influenced by Smith's "You trying to get the pipe" Twitter direct message from a couple years ago.
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