J.R. Smith Recorded Fighting Man Who Allegedly Broke Windshield Amid LA George Floyd Protests
By JOHN NEWBY - May 31, 2020 07:22 pm EDT

Protests and riots have taken place across the country following George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis. Los Angeles is one of the cities where protests have turned violent, resulting in some destroyed cars. One person allegedly broke the windows on a truck belonging to former Cleveland Cavaliers star J.R. Smith, who responded by beating him up in the street.

TMZ Sports obtained a video showing the incident. One man was curled up on the ground while Smith kicked him repeatedly. The 6-foot-6-inch NBA player landed several kicks to the man's head. Once the unidentified individual stood up, Smith punched him. As the incident continued, one of Smith's friends walked up to various bystanders and asked them to "respect his privacy."

JR Smith beats up a protester for breaking his windows on his car👀‼️

Link to tweet

Smith saw that bystanders filmed the incident, and he took steps to explain his side of the story. He filmed a video and spoke about chasing the unidentified male down and beating him up. Smith also said that this incident occurred in a residential area and that it wasn't a "hate crime."

{snip}

While Smith is not on a team, the fans are reminding him about a different incident that occurred two years prior. On May 31, 2018, Smith forgot the score during a game against the Golden State Warriors. He grabbed a rebound and dribbled out the clock instead of trying to shoot a potential game-winning shot with fewer than five seconds remaining. This sparked angry reactions from LeBron James and Cavaliers fans.

Two years later, Smith trended for a different reason. He saw someone allegedly vandalize his truck, and then he decided to chase him down. Smith beat up the unidentified individual and admitted to it in a later video.