DENVER -- For the first week, J.R. Smith just stared at the walls. Finally, he got a radio and listened to sports talk shows.Eventually, though, there was so little to do in jail that Smith found himself perusing a chemistry book that was sitting around. Not that Smith claims he now knows his periodic table of elements.
The Denver Nuggets guard spent 23 days in jail in July after pleading guilty to reckless driving for a June 2007 accident that killed his passenger and good friend.
"Oh, by far," Smith said Friday when asked if it was the most humbling experience of his life. "I was in protective custody. They wouldn't let me interact with anybody. I was on 23-hour lockdown. I was pretty much in there by myself. The whole time you definitely see the difference between freedom and not being free."
Smith will start training camp with his Nuggets on Saturday, but he'll have to wait a bit longer than his teammates before stepping on the floor for a real game. Due to his guilty plea, the NBA suspended him for the first seven games of the season.
"It's always tough sitting out," said Smith, who was making his first comments since the suspension was handed down Aug. 28. "I'm just going to have to have a positive attitude and keep working hard ... I think the NBA was fair. They had to come up with some type of penalty. We've just got to fight through it."
Smith, 24, answered most questions directly during the team's media day. He said it helped him having veteran guard Chauncey Billups, who turned 33 Friday, come to Las Vegas to work out with and tutor him during the final month of the summer.
"He's definitely my mentor right now, and I pretty much try to follow in his footsteps," Smith said.
During their time together Billups said he and Smith had a lot of "in-depth conversations about him just growing up." Billups is pleased to see Smith beginning training camp with what he called a "clean slate."
"He has a great opportunity to be one of the best players in the league," Billups said of Smith, who averaged 15.2 points last season and was second in voting for the NBA Sixth Man Award. "I don't want to see him destroy that opportunity by being immature. He's made some mistakes, but the great thing about it is that he's owned up to it. And he's taken responsibility for that, and learned from that."
Smith's biggest mistake came in June 2007 in his native New Jersey. Police say Smith drove his SUV around a stopped car at a stop sign and into the path of an oncoming car. Both Smith and his friend, Andre Bell, were thrown from the vehicle. While Smith had only minor injuries, Bell suffered a serious head injury and eventually died.
Even after that, problems continued for Smith. He was suspended by the Nuggets for the first three games of the 2007-08 for conduct detrimental to the team due to a nightclub incident.
Smith also has continued at times to butt heads with Nuggets coach George Karl. And even after being released from jail last summer, the Denver Post reported there were posts on Smith's Twitter page written in a way commonly associated with the Bloods street gang. The Twitter incident did not sit well for Billups, who soon went to Las Vegas to try to knock some sense into Smith's head.
"I think actions speak louder than words," said Smith when reminded that some of his previous declarations about having matured haven't always come to fruition. "I've said in the past that I'm matured and all that stuff. But now it's not about saying it, it's about showing it.''
While in jail, Smith tried to keep in shape with a daily workout regimen of pushups and situps. He wasn't a huge fan of the food, and said he lost five pounds.
During the one hour daily when he wasn't locked down, Smith said he was able to take a shower and make phone calls. One call came from teammate Carmelo Anthony.
"It's kind of hard to talk to a close friend like that because you don't want to see nobody in that situation,'' Anthony said. "When somebody's in that situation, it's hard to ask somebody, 'How you doing?' You already know how they're doing."
Smith said he's doing fine now. He was asked what he learned from his jail stint.
"Wake up with a purpose," he said. "Have a goal. Know that every time I do something it doesn't affect just me. It affects my family, my friends, my team, players, coaches. So just be more cautious of my surroundings."
Basketball-wise, Smith said he doesn't care if he starts this season or comes off the bench. Karl had talked late last season about moving Smith into the lineup at shooting guard, but that might not end up happening.
Smith's seven-game suspension creates some uncertainty. And Karl, despite starting shooting guard Dahntay Jones having bolted to Indiana as a free agent, might not want to mess with his effective bench of Smith, big man Chris Andersen and point guard Anthony Carter.
"I have no idea how we're going to rotate the team," Karl said. "We're trying to balance and figure it out. To predict it now is really ridiculous."
Karl said Arron Afflalo has been looking great in offseason workouts, making Afflalo a candidate to start at shooting guard. The Nuggets also want to look at Joey Graham, who will sign a one-year non-guaranteed deal with the team as a free agent.
The Nuggets, though, seem to have no problem with possibly bringing Smith again off the bench. In additional to being the primary backup at shooting guard, he could be the top backup at small forward behind Anthony, with Linas Kleiza having gone to Greece as a free agent.
Count Karl as another who believes Smith has a chance to be a star. While Karl and Smith have had their ups and downs throughout the years, Karl is looking forward to talking to Smith about moving forward following his tough summer.
"We haven't had the two-hour talk, but I think that's going to happen," Karl said. "He's played golf with some of my assistants. I can now play golf (after offseason rotator cuff surgery). I'm thinking on a good sunny October day, it might be J.R. and coach Karl playing a $50 Nassau at some golf course in Denver."
As Smith looks to turn things around, he has changed numbers. With Smith giving his No. 1 to Billups, the number he used to wear in Detroit, Smith has taken No. 5. That's the number his younger brother Chris wears for Louisville, where he recently transferred after playing for Manhattan.
"I'm taking it day by day." Smith said of how he's now looking at life. "It's a fresh start."
Comments (Page 1 of 1)
just another knucklehead who goes to jail an thinks he's learned something. Give me a break. Mabey killing his friend should be something that's changed him.....not the "hard time" he was forced to do. He's lucky he didn't kill an entire family.....
Why does it take jail time to get a positve perspective? Get it before you go to jail. More opportunities are available outside of jail than inside. So why make changes in jail as oppose to making changes when not in jail? Why be another statistic? Knowledge is not having to say jail changed you. Be changed with knowledge before you go to jail. Be a thinker before jail. Everybody has a friend who died. That wears off after time like they never existed anyway. Education is greater than money. Education makes a person make better intelligent decisions. It would help if Ballers got involved with education(college). Graduating from a college program means a lot. A High School education means nothing. There is so much to learn in College. Jail is for losers. This guy is not NBA material. He doesn't know the game at all. He even shoots the ball at the wrong time. He makes dumb mistakes during games. I think the NBA made some mistakes letting the High School players come into the league. Only a few really made it(Lebron,Kobe,Malone). College would have helped a lot of these players. I don't glorify jailbirds. Life can be lived without being placed in jail.
I don`t think Smith needed a humbling experience, I think he was overcompensating due to a lack of confidence. What he seemed to me to have neeeded was a SOBERING edxperience. I hope he got it. But the loss of life wasn`t worth it.
Having Billups involved and having JR LISTENING to Billups gives the possibility for all sorts of good things in this situation. Hoping for the best for JR....even if the best is not easy for him.
A 24 year old pro basketball player with a criminal record. That's the norm for today, right.
What and who was in this guys life at 13, and from 13 to 18 who watched him grow, who let this young man get out of control. Was being a ball player more important than being an upstanding person, I guess so. The decay in morals in our society is to blame. Kids don't get taught how much "wrong" can hurt them and others. Matter of fact, kids don't get taught jack anymore,just go to your local Mall and observe and listen to the youth of today. There's your next reality show.
ok this situation is sensitive, to do what he did he probably should have more jail time. me as a person i think that jail time is not the solution to all situations. should he have his job back...maybe. believe me he feels the pain of losing particular people in his life so dont get on him like he's an asshole, mistakes can be made. loss of life is always tragic, but God forgives and so should we
A football player goes to jail for 2 years for
shooting him self - this guy say that jail
humbles him. Grew up - dummy
This man was his best friend. There should be maxium testing and education standards for all athletes. The NBA would ne DEAD
NBA Who knows among your athletes the abc's not many, Thugs that can play a game and yet still stay uneducated,
you d think having to do with the death of a couple of people would be the humbling tool, not weeks in jail
all things are predesigned to happen is my humbling experience
A football player didn't go to jail for shooting himself. He went to jail because he broke several New York no tolerence gun laws. He was carrying an unlicense gun and discharged it in a public place.Felonies. That's why his dumb ass in in jail
J.R. Smith IS a good, young basketball player. That is why the Nuggets let Jones go to the Pacers, not just courtesy from one former Aba team to another, because the Pacers desperately needed a quality defensive wing guard, but also because, via offense, Smith had clearly outplayed Jones, coming off the bench. But that does seem awfully trivial at the moment. Recruiters, maybe the press, make it seem like being a sports star is all fun and games, and like everyone who WAS a star before they went pro, will still BE a star, the greatest of all time, if they go pro. It doesn`t work that way. Stars routinely fail when they try to step up to the pros. Scorers routinely have to become defenders, or they`ll fail too. Look at most any brick mason who can`t shoot in the Nba. He was probably a record breaking scorer in college. Billups knows how it is. He sat unwanted on the Magic bench, went on to be an all star. And while young athletes are rented in high school, and passed along, from private high school, selling tickets to ball games, too often not studying their school lessons, is the fault of the adults in the schools who rent the kids. Someone needs to protect the kids from being explotited and misled while they are still kids, not just complain as if it is the athletes at fault for accepting the money pushed at them but only a small portion of the money made off of them. Some of these kids are exploited even BEFORE private high school, in private grade school, even though tickets aren`t sold that early. How many of these private schools do you think give scholarships for ACADEMIC excellence. Probably none, right? The fact Smith is a good young athletic talent, though, is rather trivial compared with the loss of his buddy`s life, for no good reason.
I have a friend that lives down in Charlotte and she is close friends with a certain somebody. She told me the night of the Hall of Fame induction, Jordan was over heard asking Pippin if he could still play an 82 game season. Pippin laughed and before he could answer, Rodman said with the Bobcats him and Pippin could play a whole season and make the playoffs. People laughed and Jordan got real serious and said that means I will have to come out of retirement too and play 82 games and make the play-offs and win a 7th championship. I heard this will go down sometime in October. Just wait....I will keep everyone updated.
Don't watch the NBA any more. They're just too many thugs playing basketball for me these days. Most look like inmates who are gang members with all their tattoos and such. Half of them couldn't spell "cat" if you spotted them the "C and the A". Dumb asses! Not once does this guy mention what happened to his friend. Not once! I think that pretty much says it all!
Another racist genius who cannot even spell the word responsible. We shouldn't cast the entire black community as genetically flawed for the stupid actions of a few. Just as I won't cast all white people as under educated, over opinionated and racist because of the stupid statement you just made about black genetics. Incredible..lol
23 days for taking two lives. is tthat really fair. The laws are a joke now that we have so many liberal judges and lawyers. This is the justice you asked for all you wimpy liberals. I hope you like it when one of your family gets taken by a drunk athlete and they spend 23 days in jail for it.