As Jay Z says, there is only so long fake thugs can pretend. I never saw JR Smith as a tough guy, maybe that was the perception because of the tats, Twodels and reckless behavior at times.
He just seemed like a grown up kid to me. To me the problem isn’t JR, because anyone with some common sense knew what type of player and person he was. The problem was the Knicks when they had an opportunity to get rid of him decide to keep him. That’s a Knicks problem, not a JR problem.
Adrian Wojnarowski from Yahoo Sports wasn’t very kind when he pulled the covers off JR’s public facade.
J.R. Smith was raised in a suburban, middle-class home with two good parents and access to an excellent education. He had a tremendous high school coaching mentor – Dan Hurley at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, N.J. – and he has long been taught the difference of right and wrong. Smith’s always loved to play the part of a tough city kid, but truth be told, he’s a soft, spoiled, suburban jump-shooter.
And when Smith’s benching ends with these Knicks, there will be no epiphanies. No revelations. Everyone knows how this story ends with him, how the money will dry up and how he’ll wish he had done everything so differently in his career. It is sad and predictable and on a collision course with cliche.
Someday, Smith will make that call to room service – insisting upon more of everything – and there will be no one to answer. J.R. Smith is 28 years old, and it is too late to threaten and punish a spoiled, suburban kid. No trade, no epiphanies, no changes. The Knicks deserve J.R. Smith, and he’ll belong to them until the bitter end.
Pretty harsh and while you never truly want to give up hope on a person, it is hard to argue with anything that WOJO said.
My only hope is that Smith wakes up, before he becomes the latest athlete to squander such a precious opportunity.