Josh Smith clarifies controversial remarks

Josh Smith is attempting to undo the damage done last week when reports indicated he was going to have a hard time providing for his family after taking the $1.5 million veteran minimum to join the Los Angeles Clippers.

Smith took to Derek Jeter's Players' Tribune to pen an essay on the whole situation and the media circus surrounding it.

When a millionaire and a member of the 1 percent of the 1 percent seems to be crying poor, you can imagine the reaction.

The Internet snark machine, and Detroit Bad Boys is as guilty as anyone, went into full effect. While we at DBB had some fun with it and chalked it up to Smith being "completely tone deaf."

The cynical among us might consider Smith's piece spin or damage control or something else, but I think he's being truthful, I think he mostly wrote the piece himself (it's not very good, and I mean that as a compliment), and I think he was always talking about his family.

Early in the piece, after a bizarre introduction about walking, Smith lays out the quote that put the spotlight on him, but he also includes an introductory clause that I had never seen before in any of the stories I had read (emphasis mine):

"It wasn't about the money because of the Detroit situation, but at the end of the day, I do have a family, so it is going to be a little harder on me this year. But I'm going to push through it and try to do something long-term after this year."

So it turned out a bunch of writers, myself included, took an out of context quote and ran with it. So apologies to Josh Smith. I was wrong, and I now understand what you were talking about.

But I'm not going to apologize for this.

Or this.

Or this.

Or this.

Or this.

Or this.

Or this.