An Emergency Message to J.R. Smith

I hope somehow J.R. Smith gets this message:

J.R., do you think you are a pro basketball player or a black sheep character in a soap opera? Because you've had some "incidents", and people are saying "you know, neither I nor anyone I know would ever be involved with bizarre and damaging incidents like this". And then they are saying bad things about your personality and your mind and your character. And then they are also making bad decisions for you, like benching you for the first three games of the season. And then the fans at the Pepsi Center are going to be staring at you funny when you are sitting on the bench, which you are going to be doing way too much of. And you have to know that George Karl is licking his chops about all the bench time he is going to give your (expletive) this season.

You won't admit it, but I'm sure you are still hurting from all of that bull from last year. On December 16 2006, you were part of the top 1-2 scoring punch tandem in the NBA, and you were going in for an outstanding breakaway dunk in the heart of the biggest city in North America. You were a star at the top of the heap. And then you were attacked, cheated, and robbed by Mardy Collins, Nate Robinson, David Stern, and George Karl. You were in the right and they were all in the wrong. Every one of them went off the deep end.

But there is nowhere to go to get justice for all that went down. It will be an injustice to you for the rest of time. That's the way the society you are living in is sometimes. There is no justice for many of the attacks and mistakes that occur in it. Eventually you will learn that the only good thing you can do when stuff like this happens is to know that you were in the right, and to declare yourself to have been right and your attackers wrong, and then to move on with a fresh start. People have to do that in this society all the time. It's not logical but it's true. People in the right can be and are treated as if they are in the wrong. This is not a perfect society by any stretch. You are not living in a basketball video game.

You are making a bad situation worse by taking society's problems out on yourself. You are attacking, cheating, and robbing yourself with these crazy incidents you are having. You have given George Karl and his close associates a license to do even more damage to you and your career.

I'm pleading with you to stop. Just stop attacking yourself. Don't drive for a couple years. Don't go out to clubs unless you have Melo or your brother or your father or some type of agent or bodyguard with you. Don't take any funny pills. Don't get entangled with the funky club violence that has become common in Denver the last few years. That stuff is below your pay grade. Don't stay up to all hours and be late for the practice or the bus the next day. Ride with one of your teammates to the Center every work day. Please, I beg you. Stop making George Karl look good.

Another way to put all this, J.R., is that the respect you get is determined by your performance, but also by the respect you show yourself. Your performance has been well above average. Karl's lame brain has been unable to calculate that the good in your game outweighs the bad. The great majority of fans and analysts, including Hollinger of ESPN, know how good a player you are, but Karl is never going to listen to anyone on this subject except maybe the owner, and the owner is too busy to get involved.

I'm not asking you to change your personality like Karl does. Nobody can change their personality. I'm just pleading with you to treat yourself alot better than you have been. It's easy, but I'll tell you how in case you don't know.

Start by putting your foot down J.R.. Declare that, since you were in the right and they were in the wrong, that you are not any longer going to add to the bull that was piled on to you during the last year. Declare that you are going to be treated right and be given playing time commensurate with your abilities or you are going to demand a trade. Work with your agent on this. Better yet, get a fresh start with a new, aggressive agent. Denver is not the only town with a team, you know. I want you to stay, and most of the hardcore fans want you to stay, but Karl is definitely not your kind of coach, trust me. If the likes of Gary Payton. Kenyon Martin, and Carmelo Anthony can get trashed by this Coach, then what are the odds that you won't be attacked and maybe destroyed if you don't stand up for yourself? When K-Mart was benched, he informed everybody that he was in the right, and that is what you have to do. So demand what is due to you and if you don't get it, hand Karl your walking papers.

Play with more self-respect. Stop cheating yourself by instantly chucking up threes even when you are off balance. Look around more for the open man when you are guarded well. Don't wait until late in the game to start driving to the hoop. Stop thinking you can't straight up defend your guy, so that you have to be reaching in all the time. The way you play right now is a dead giveaway that you need more self-respect.

In summary, you have more than enough talent and performance, but you don't have enough self respect to be able to get enough respect from the fans and the coaches. So all you have to do is to show yourself alot more respect. You are not a character in a streetball video game or a damn soap opera. You are a well above average professional basketball player.

Please show yourself the respect that's due to you, J.R. Smith. In other words, show some pride. If you don't, we Nuggets fans are definitely going to lose you, and we don't want the story to end that way.

Respect,

Nuggets 1