The NBA fined New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith $25,000 on Friday for a rant on Twitter. The rant involved Detroit Pistons guard Brandon Jennings.
The fine was for “directing hostile and inappropriate language to another player via Twitter". Smith’s rant began on Wednesday after Jennings critized his brother Chris, who also plays for the Knicks. Jennings said that Chris Smith is in the NBA and Pooh Jeter and Bobby Brown aren’t. Chris Smith’s roster spot has been the cause of controversy as he hasn’t proven himself to be an NBA player. J.R. Smith is tired of people not respecting his brother and he responded via Twitter, but said that there was no bad intent behind his Twitter rant, according to the Associated Press.
Smith later deleted the tweet.
'I'm always in trouble with Twitter,” Smith said before the Knicks again on Thursday. ''I don't know what it is. Trying to shake it.''
Smith isn’t the only NBA player to get into trouble on Twitter. Since 2009, eight players have been fined for incidents on Twitter, according to CBS Sports. Smith and Amar’e Stoudemire have been fined twice, no other player has been fined more than once. Matt Barnes was fined $25,000 on Thursday for inappropriate language on Twitter.