Los Angeles Lakers: J.R. Smith leads vets in “Last Chance” in Orlando

CLEVELAND, OH - JUNE 08: JR Smith #5 of the Cleveland Cavaliers warms up before Game Four of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena on June 8, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images)
CLEVELAND, OH - JUNE 08: JR Smith #5 of the Cleveland Cavaliers warms up before Game Four of the 2018 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena on June 8, 2018 in Cleveland, Ohio. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images) /
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Los Angeles Lakers
(Photo by Rob Kim/Getty Images) – Los Angeles Lakers /

Led by J.R. Smith on the Los Angeles Lakers, the Orlando Bubble presents some NBA veterans with their last chance.

The Los Angeles Lakers are in Orlando to finish the NBA season in the bubble with 22 other teams. The teams look different with an influx of veterans. Now that the teams are in the bubble, there has been no shortage of NBA news going on which includes J.R. Smith. Lake Show Life points out players that are looking at the Orlando bubble (Oops, campus is it?) as the “Last Chance” saloon.

Thank the Heavens above that the NBA is back in effect again for fans and media to follow. People do not understand the effect of March 11th, 2020, when NBA commissioner Adam Silver had to shut down operations. No NBA to watch and no news for the media types. No one checking for free-agent options or trade scenarios while complaining about sports stories becoming too political.

To think it only took less than 24 hours for the number one NBA insider in the business to get caught up in the political cross-hairs. It seems that Adrian Wojnarowski dropped his most “infamous” Woj bomb of his career. It just started with an F.

No, he didn’t break another Los Angeles Lakers free agent move (Don’t you think they’ve had enough?). This time, it was in response to Republican Missouri Senator, Josh Hawley. Hawley used his platform to call out the NBA for “kowtowing to China,”  while in his opinion not supporting the military and law enforcement.

Wojnarowski responded with just two words… F— you.

Right or wrong, bitter or sweet, taking the ups with the downs, Woj had to apologize with ESPN making their own statement.

The drama seems to be at a fever pitch and we still have two weeks before the teams start playing scrimmages against each other on July 22nd. The one thing about the NBA, the media can find a story anywhere and during the season, the players can give out the most inspiration.

Take Joel Embiid showing up to Orlando in a full body suit and mask after expressing his concerns about the threat of the virus in the bubble.

Laugh at him all you want but if some people in this country had taken the virus half as serious as Embiid, there could have been an outside chance of fans being in the arenas with the COVID-19 virus being somewhat contained.

But now the teams are in Orlando in what the NBA wants to be called the NBA “campus” instead of “bubble”, the message is pretty clear about what the league and the 22 teams want from the participating players. If they don’t know, let retired NBA player Richard Jefferson spell it out.

With the Lake Show Life staff probably laughing at the writer of this article considering the main culprit of what Jefferson is talking about happens to be J.R. Smith. Yes, the same guy that Lake Show Life has been subliminal in begging to get the guy on the roster since the trading deadline and monitoring his eventual signing after Avery Bradley backed out.

J.R. Smith didn’t let the ink dry on the contract or get his information safe in the computer before irritating the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers or just LeBron James himself. Does it really matter?

Smith immediately took to IG Live as soon as he got settled in to talk about campus living in Orlando. Throughout his live session, Smith made notes (Also read: jokes!) and placed them on his social media platform.

Smith didn’t have very nice things to say about the place and amenities. Here’s a list below. The language was so bad, Lake Show Life will embed the video. Umm, it’s a family Lakers site, that’s all we can say.

"“Bruh — they didn’t do that bruh. They didn’t do that,” Smith says in the video while showing off a blanket with an NBA logo. “Look at the blanket bruh. What the [expletive]. I know Bron ain’t got this. Bron and AD, these [expletive] 6-foot-12. I know they aren’t using this little [expletive] blanket. Ya’ll got to chill. I got to chill.”"

"“Ah man. They mad at me bro. I’m gone, just got the text. Exposing too much [expletive],” Smith said. “Got to go. My bad.”"

Finally, Smith showed off a high-tech NBA-issued bracelet which was assigned to him to monitor the COVID-19 virus in these ways.

  • Help with early detection of coronavirus.
  • Track temperature, respiratory and heart rate.

Smith however described it as a little band and s— so the NBA can keep tabs on him and finished with the phrase “Stay woke.”  But before anyone wants to start to dump on J.R., at least he didn’t compare the hotel rooms to the “Motel 6”. That insult was relayed by Rajon Rondo.

Well despite J.R. Smith putting his pro-rated $293,000 salary in jeopardy for the first of now presumably plenty of times over the next three months, he has become the face of many veterans that are getting their last chance at playing on the NBA hardwood.

This season has been trended with players that the NBA had passed by. With players catching COVID-19 at a troubling rate these days, teams are picking up some interesting players.

Lake Show Life takes an in-depth look at some NBA players that have been picked up that will definitely see the Orlando bubble as their stay at “The Last Chance Saloon”. Let’s start with J.R. Smith… before he gets kicked out.