Let’s run through J.R. Smith’s summer:
He delayed getting needed surgery on his knee until after he got a new contract signed, which has pushed his rehab back possibly all the way into the start of the season. He requested (and got) a lot money from the three-year contract up front. He was driving around Manhattan in huge military vehicle. He got in a war of words with Paul Pierce. He guaranteed a Knicks title. Then to cap it all off, he got suspended five games for failing the league’s drug test for marijuana for a third time.
Knicks coach Mike Woodson showed a little frustration with Smith speaking with the media on Wednesday, as reported by the Associated Press.“I’m not going to throw him out to the pasture,” Woodson said. “My job is to coach him and make sure something like what happened doesn’t happen again. That’s what we do as coaches, and I expect his teammates to show him love. But at the end of the day he’s got to do the right thing by J.R. and his teammates, and me as a coach and this organization and the fans that support him. I mean, that’s what it’s all about.
“He’s got to grow up and do the right things.”
Last season we heard the reports of his improved maturity, then he elbowed Jason Terry in the face during a playoff game and got a one-game suspension.
Smith is a grown man who gets to live his life how he chooses; it’s not my place or your place to say how he should spend his off hours. But if I’m a Knicks fan I might wonder if all this bleeds over to his game on the court. If the Knicks are going to take a step forward off the 54-win, second round of the playoffs team they were last year, they need Smith the Sixth Man of the Year back on the court.
We’ll see if he still is that guy… after his drug suspension is over.