J.R. Smith explains why he loves golf and how it compares to basketball

In what has been a light and happy off-season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, it may feel like we’ve had too many fluff pieces. But seeing as there isn’t anything else to focus on, we may as well catch-up with J.R. Smith.

On Wednesday Smith caddied for Jason Day at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio during a practice round. Both Smith and Day sat down for an entertaining interview with ESPN that’s worth a read.

In terms of actual basketball comments, two stand out from this interview:

First, on what about golf speaks to Smith:

I think, for me, no two shots are the same. You could be on one tee box that's a par-4, 450 yards and be on the next tee box par-4 450 yards -- and it's two totally different shots, you're looking at two totally different things. And for me ... you never know where my [basketball] shots are gonna come from -- whether it's fading out of bounds or transition or spot-up or off the dribble -- no two shots are the same, so it makes me focus that much more and want to do it that much better than the last shot.

As well as a comment on ego in basketball:

When you're on a good team like the Cavs, it's easy to get lost in, "We're going to the Finals, we got this player, we got this player, we got that player," as opposed to doing the little steps. ... If you skip [steps] 1-2-3, everything's going to come falling down.

In case my sarcasm wasn’t clear earlier, this summer hasn’t been a lot of fun for the Cavs. It’s nice to take a break from the hysteria and sit back with a more traditional off-season story.