I am not a gang aficionado of any sort. I know a lot of people who claim to be gang members and know even fewer who put in work in the name of a gang. But as I browse the net this morning, I’m reading various writers & (Lakers) forums up in arms because “J.R. Smith flashed a gang sign” versus the Lakers in last night’s Game 4. Sure, it’s the “gang sign” that’s got them angry, not the way he was raining 3′s on the Kobes last night.

I was watching the game and didn’t get that feeling that it was gang-related at all. Granted, he’s had a short but eventful career in the League, he’s inked the hell up, etc. so I can see the common assertion that he must be repping a gang. I took it as the same trash talk arrogance that’s always marked his game & this was just another display. Also, he’s been throwing up the same finger contortion for a minute now, only after 3′s to my knowledge…it don’t add up. He may be a bonehead @ times, but surely he’s not ignorant enough to test David Stern, the same commissioner who hit up Paul Pierce’s pockets for $25k when he threw up a sign.

A little more, I know gang signs vary from state to state, neighborhood to neighborhood. Yet, I can’t rightly recall someone throwing their sign up…and throw it down as well.

So could someone from New Jersey, where Smith was born so I’d assume he’d pick up “gang culture,” clarify. What mythical gang is this?

Maybe J.R. should just keep his hands to himself, considering how the refs in this series & the playoffs as a whole have been throwing out T’s & flagrants like they have a quota to make. Those are the hand formations I could stand to see less of right now.