FILE – 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. Jason Miller/Getty Images/AFP
Former Cleveland Cavaliers guard JR Smith is seen in video published by TMZ Sports on Sunday beating up a man that Smith said damaged his truck during Los Angeles protests over the death of George Floyd.
Smith can be seen violently kicking the man when he is on the ground and punching him when he rises, before the man runs away.
Smith posted his own video online, saying the unidentified man had broken the window of his truck, which Smith said was parked in a residential area and not near any shops where looting took place during the protests.
“I chased him down and whupped his ass,” Smith said in a video posted on The Neighborhood Talk Twitter feed.
He said he wanted to make it clear that his actions against the man, who is white, were not racially motivated.
“This ain’t no hate crime,” said the 34-year-old Smith, a 14-year NBA veteran who played 11 games for the Cleveland Cavaliers last season but hasn’t been with a team in this campaign.
Los Angeles is just one of the US cities where violence and looting have erupted amid protests over the death of Floyd, a black man who was killed in police custody in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Video showed white police officer Derek Chauvin kneeling on a handcuffed Floyd’s neck for more than eight minutes.