nba championship

Two-time NBA champion J.R. Smith has been arrested in Texas on family violence charges.

The former Laker is being held on suspicion of family violence assault causing bodily injury, with no bond currently set, according to the Hunt County jail’s booking records. The charge is usually a misdemeanor for first-time offenders.

According to a news release from Royse City police chief Kirk Aldridge, officers stopped Smith, whose full name is Earl Joseph Smith III, on Interstate 30 on Monday afternoon after receiving an automatic license plate alert about an outstanding warrant for his arrest issued by the Southlake Police Department..

The officers stopped the vehicle, identified Smith and took him into custody. He was transported to the Hunt County dentention center and booked on the Southlake warrant. Smith’s car was released to his brother, who was with him at the time.

Southlake police said in a statement that the investigation is ongoing and no additional information will be released at this time.

Smith played for five teams during his 16-year NBA career. He was named the league’s sixth man of the year in 2013 as a member of the New York Knicks and was a member of the LeBron James-led Cleveland Cavaliers that won the 2016 NBA championship.

After signing with the Lakers while the league was shut down because of the coronavirus pandemic in July 2020, Smith played sparingly after the season resumed in a bubble environment in Orlando, eventually winning another NBA championship with James as his teammate. His last NBA appearance was in Game 3 of the 2020 finals, a 115-104 Lakers loss to the Miami Heat.

In 2009, Smith was sentenced to 90 days in jail, with 60 days suspended, and 500 hours of community service for reckless driving after he caused a 2007 auto accident in Millstone, N.J., that resulted in the death of a friend who was a passenger in the vehicle.

Gregg Popovich coached the San Antonio Spurs from 1996 to 2025, winning a league-record 1,390 regular-season games, 170 postseason games and five NBA championships.

For four of those championships and quite a few of the other victories, one of Popovich’s assistant coaches was his new wife’s ex-husband.

Popovich, 77, married Mary Barth Budenholzer on Sept. 16, the Bexar County, Texas, clerk’s office has confirmed.

Budenholzer is a 61-year-old native of Corpus Christi, according to multiple media outlets, and was once married to Mike Budenholzer, who was a Spurs assistant coach under Popovich from 1996 to 2013. He went on to become the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns, winning an NBA championship with the Bucks in 2021.

The Budenholzers are said to share four children and to have divorced in 2016.

Popovich was married to Erin Popovich for four decades until her 2018 death at age 67. They have two children and multiple grandchildren.

On Nov. 2, 2024, Popovich suffered a stroke before a game at Frost Bank Center, the Spurs’ home arena. Assistant coach Mitch Johnson was named interim coach. That title became permanent on May 2, 2025, when Popovich stepped down after 29 years as San Antonio’s coach.

A member of the Spurs’ front office since 1994, Popovich currently serves as the team’s president of basketball operations. He was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2023.