UPDATED 10/27, 3:10 p.m. ET: J.R. Smith took to Twitter on Tuesday, where he responded to Sam Dekker's wife calling his account of her husband into question.
"Extremely inaccurate and unfair," Olivia Harlan Dekker wrote below NBC Sports' Dan Feldman's tweet linking to the original story. "Consider the source."
That's when Smith chimed in.
"Would you like to explain why your husband can't say NI&&@R or should I?" Smith tweeted in response." I don't mind at all."
See original story below.
J.R. Smith and Sam Dekker played together for a few weeks with the Cleveland Cavaliers two years ago, but the limited amount of time was enough to convince the now two-time NBA champion that Dekker has been the only teammate he hasn't liked during his 16-year career.
Smith explained on the All Things Covered podcast why he and Dekker never got along. "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," he said, per NBC Sports. "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."
"For what the question he asked, it's a thought pattern. You're taught that," Smith continued. "It's not like – it's the hate you give. And I feel like it's something you’re taught. It's not – the privilege he has was taught to him, and he took heed of it and run with it even further than somebody who was not – who was oblivious to what they have and what the life they lived. Because some people just go through their life – not necessarily knowing, but not aware and privy to somebody 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."
The same year that the two were teammates, Dekker was forced to backtrack a tweet where he defended his pride in being white, writing, "Don't put it in my face that being a white guy is something I'm supposed to be ashamed of. Im proud of who I am and so should you." Dekker followed up with another tweet, which has also been deleted, claiming his words were misconstrued.
"I'm trying to enjoy myself out here and y’all are trying to spin the words ‘I’m proud of who I am and so should you’ into something bigger," Dekker wrote. "Go get a hobby or have a beer. I’m not gonna entertain all this nonsense. #LoveYall."
