Josh Smith Clarifies Comments About Family, Contract with Clippers

After drawing the ire of sports fans across the country for his comments regarding his salary for the upcoming NBA season, Josh Smith issued a response in The Players' Tribune on Thursday.

Speaking during his introductory press conference as a member of the Los Angeles Clippers, Smith said his one-year deal—in which he'll earn roughly $1.5 million—with the team will make things "a little harder on me this year," per Michael Smith of the Washington Post.

Josh Smith's critics wasted little time calling him greedy and the epitome of an out-of-touch star. He was compared to Latrell Sprewell, who famously said he's "got a family to feed" after dismissing the Minnesota Timberwolves' attempts to re-sign him in 2004.

Smith countered that the difficulties about which he talked weren't of a financial nature:

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The whole thing about it being "harder on me" comes down to family. It seems obvious to me, but maybe I could have said it more clearly. If you know the NBA, you know that moving to a new team is a decision that affects an athlete's whole family. That's even more true when you’re signing a one-year deal. With a one-year deal, there's less stability because you know you might be moving again in a year.

[...]

When I was waived from Detroit this year, it meant I had to move to Houston in the middle of the year. Like any parent, you think about how your work affects your kids. You want consistency for your kids — consistent teachers, consistent friends, a consistent home. You want some normalcy for them. I wanted to go to the Clippers (that's a business decision), but I also wanted to be sensitive to how it affected my kids (that's a personal one). I can tell you that the conversations this offseason between me and my wife were more about where they’d go to school than about finances.

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"Just because Smith is very well-compensated for what he does doesn't mean he shouldn't be allowed to also worry about the well-being and stability of his family," wrote Pro Basketball Talk's Sean Highkin. "That's all he was saying with the comments."

Far too often, fans don't consider professional athletes exist outside of their respective sports. They don't go into hibernation when the season is over. They have significant others and children, all of whom have to adjust to what can be a tough situation.

The threat of a trade or outright release always lingers. In the blink of an eye, an athlete can be playing in a completely different part of the country, and he or she must decide to uproot his or her family as well.

Smith isn't the first, and he won't be the last athlete to struggle with finding that proper work-life balance.