http://hangtime.blogs.nba.com/2015/07/30/josh-smith-sets-the-record-straight/?ls=nbahpsplit1

I think many of us had chuckle, head shake, and sigh at Josh Smith's expense..I thought it was worth it to post this to set the record straight..I believe him..I sure those who wrote many articles won't re-write what could be an error in their interpretation of Josh's intent...

Josh Smith doesn’t do Twitter, Instagram or emojis, which makes him a bit of an odd fit with the social media savvy Los Angeles Clippers.

With Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan, Paul Pierce and others around to show him the ropes, Smith might very well learn his way around the social media universe. In the meantime, he’ll stick to the “old-fashioned” method of just making clear what he meant via the written word. And that’s exactly what he did today, finally setting the record straight on comments he made after his introductory news conference last week in Los Angeles.

He was roundly criticized for comments attributed to him that suggested he and his family would have to struggle on the nearly $7 millions he’ll earn next season in salary, both the veteran’s minimum of $1.5 million the Clippers will pay him and the money he’s owed (an additional $5.4 million) from the Detroit Pistons after they waived him last season.

Smith insists his words were taken out of context that day, and he set the record straight to The Players’ Tribune:

Apparently the headline was: Josh Smith went to the Clippers press conference and said he didn’t make enough money? Even the idea of it is kind of ridiculous. Anyone who knows me, or knows how one-year contracts work in the NBA, understood what I was saying. This is my third team in less than a year. I was talking about how moving affects my family. But the headline about greed was the one everyone ran with.

Let’s just look at what I actually said so we don’t get it twisted. This is the quote people shared:

“It wasn’t about the money because of the Detroit situation, but at the end of the day, I do have a family, so it is going to be a little harder on me this year. But I’m going to push through it and try to do something long-term after this year.”

The whole thing about it being “harder on me” comes down to family. It seems obvious to me, but maybe I could have said it more clearly. If you know the NBA, you know that moving to a new team is a decision that affects an athlete’s whole family. That’s even more true when you’re signing a one-year deal. With a one-year deal, there’s less stability because you know you might be moving again in a year.

So I’m out there power-walking with the fam. My first response was, OK, who cares how a few people interpreted it? I know everyone on the Internet likes to be judgmental at one point or another. I try not to be too sensitive to any one thing. But it’s funny, because if you look at my whole statement, no one present at the press conference had any issue with it. Everyone seemed to know what I meant. It wasn’t until later that it took on a life of its own.

Smith, never one to share much about his personal life, didn’t hold back:

When I was waived from Detroit this year, it meant I had to move to Houston in the middle of the year. Like any parent, you think about how your work affects your kids. You want consistency for your kids — consistent teachers, consistent friends, a consistent home. You want some normalcy for them. I wanted to go to the Clippers (that’s a business decision), but I also wanted to be sensitive to how it affected my kids (that’s a personal one). I can tell you that the conversations this offseason between me and my wife were more about where they’d go to school than about finances.

Every athlete has had articles about them that aren’t 100 percent true. Most of the time, it’s not anyone’s fault — it’s just the reality. Earlier this year, everyone was making a big deal about how Detroit went on a winning streak right after I was waived. People had fun with that story. I get it. But to be honest, I wasn’t even mad. Detroit wasn’t the right fit for me at that time. I knew it, they knew it. So they waived me. I never said much in public because I was thinking, Just give me some time to prove myself. A couple months later, at playoff time, look at the damage Houston did. In the league, you just have to be patient.

I came to the Clippers to be part of an exciting team that I know I can play well for. I came to compete for a championship this year. I’m the first person to tell you how grateful I know I am. I’m grateful to have played in this league for going on 12 years — I’ll always have love for the Hawks, where I started — and to have earned a good living. I didn’t grow up wealthy, so I know how much it means to have security.

Now, I’m moving on to basketball, but thanks for reading. I don’t speak up that often, but I felt I needed to clear the air. I wish someone had just asked me for clarification before everyone immediately jumped to negative assumptions. A couple people sometimes ruin it for everyone else. I’ve got no hard feelings, but I do see why some guys are more skeptical about opening up when this type of thing happens.

Smith even joked about joining Twitter. But knowing him the way we do here at HT, that just doesn’t seem like a realistic possibility … unless his new Clippers teammates can convince him otherwise!

Whats amazing is the number of sites that cannibalized this headline off one article and ran with it...He puts out this piece 6 days ago, nba.com and a Clipper site are the only ones printing it, so far...

holfresh wrote:Whats amazing is the number of sites that cannibalized this headline off one article and ran with it...He puts out this piece 6 days ago, nba.com and a Clipper site are the only ones printing it, so far...

Wow. Sad.

its freakin josh smith

I guess we should defend him like wooodson and JR