J.R. Smith believes one of the most celebrated individual honors of his career came with mixed emotions.
Speaking on NBAT2 recently about his 2012-13 season with the New York Knicks, Smith said winning the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award did not bring the satisfaction many assumed it would. Instead, he felt his performance warranted consideration for a much bigger stage.
“It kind of felt like a slap in the face to me honestly because I felt like I should have been an All-Star,” Smith said, via HoopsHype. “I should have been one of the first All-Stars to come off the bench. And we get to the end of the year, you give me this trophy to where it’s like, you know, be satisfied, and I was just so upset because I wasn’t even a thought.”
Smith’s comments stem from the best statistical season of his NBA career.
During the 2012-13 campaign, the veteran guard averaged 18.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists across 80 games while coming off the bench in every appearance. He played 33.5 minutes per game and finished with shooting splits of 42.2% from the field, 35.6% from three-point range and 76.2% from the free-throw line.
His scoring average ranked comfortably above most reserve players around the league, and he became a major offensive weapon for a Knicks team that finished 54-28 and secured the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
The former first-round pick received 72 of 121 first-place votes to win Sixth Man of the Year, finishing ahead of the Los Angeles Clippers duo of Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes.
Smith’s frustration, however, centered on the fact that he believed his impact extended beyond the traditional role of a bench scorer.
At the time, All-Star selections still overwhelmingly favored starters and primary stars. Smith averaged more points in 2012-13 than he did in any other season of his 16-year NBA career and posted one of the league’s highest scoring totals among reserve players.
Smith went on to enjoy a successful NBA career that spanned 16 seasons with the New Orleans Hornets, Denver Nuggets, Knicks, Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers. He finished his career averaging 12.4 points per game while shooting 37.3% from three-point range across 977 regular-season appearances.
His greatest team success came in Cleveland, where he helped the Cavaliers win the 2016 NBA championship alongside LeBron James. Yet more than a decade after his Sixth Man award-winning season, Smith still views that year through a different lens.
