J.R. Smith opened up on 7PM in Brooklyn with Carmelo Anthony about why he got emotional after finding out the New York Knicks traded him in 2015.
Smith admitted he initially thought Carmelo Anthony was more upset about him and Iman Shumpert playing with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers than losing a longtime friend and teammate.
Smith also believed this trade signaled the "end to an era" because he and Anthony were never going to be teammates again.
"I ain't gon' lie, man to man, I was more hurt," he said. "It felt like it was more between you and Bron, opposed to the relationship we had over the time that we had and spent. And for me, all I could really fathom at the time was it was over."
"Like, damn. Like, this my best friend," he continued. "I'm never gon' hoop with this n***a again. This was, like, a real, live end to an era."
Prior to their reunion on the Knicks, Smith and Anthony played nearly five seasons together on the Denver Nuggets.
"When it happened, that was my initial thought and I went away from that shit, like, damn, was this shit bullshit? Like, did he really rock with me like that?"
Smith said he realized how Anthony truly felt after a conversation with his father.
"I told my dad this shit. My dad looked at me like I had three heads. He was like, 'You kidding me right now? That man fucking love you.' Gave me a whole different perspective and outlook on shit, and I was just like, 'Nah, you right.'"
J.R. recalled trying to convince Shumpert of the upsides of joining the Cavaliers because he was still not taking the news well the following day.
"He's still going like, 'Damn, Joe, they ain't believe in us…,'" Smith remembered. "I'm like, 'Shump, if you don’t pipe that shit down bruh, we about to win a chip.' We was just damn near last place. Bro, we just went to damn near first. We going to the chip for sure."
"You see our team?," he continued. "He's like, 'Nah Joe, man, fuck that shit, fuck that shit. Man, we get to–two weeks later, everybody who came back healthy. Bron was healthy. Kyrie was healthy. K-Love was healthy. We start blowing shit out. He looked at me, like, ‘Yo bro, I was tripping."
Smith re-signed with the Cavaliers the following season, and helped the franchise to its first championship.
The conversation about the Knicks trade starts at the 1:20:00 mark in the video up top.
J.R. remains a supporter of the Knicks, as evident by his reaction to the team's thrilling Game 2 victory over the Boston Celtics in the playoffs.