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J.R. Smith: 'It's crazy to me' that Phil Jackson would share private talk on personal life
New York Knicks president of basketball operations Phil Jackson raised quite a few eyebrows this summer when he spoke publicly and at some length in an on-the-record interview with longtime friend/former assistant coach/ESPN.com writer Charley Rosen about personal issues that shooting guard J.R. Smith was having early last season before the January trade that shipped him and Iman Shumpert to the Cleveland Cavaliers:
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"J.R. had been exhibiting some delinquent behavior and had gotten into the habit of coming late to team meetings, or missing them altogether," Jackson says. "Also, Shump and Tim [Hardaway Jr.] were regressing, so I decided to meet with them separately and try to find out what, if anything, was bothering them."
Smith was first on the list. "We talked about his statement to the press that our shooting guard depth was going to be the team's asset, but so far it hadn't worked out that way," Jackson says. "He was supposed to carry the scoring load for the second unit and he wasn't doing the job. I also said that because of his unacceptable behavior, he had two strikes against him with this team. He didn't really respond. He's a very sensitive guy, with his big doe eyes. He looked like he was going to tear up. But he finally responded that he was going through some issues with his gal." [...]
"I asked Fish what players were the biggest distractions. He said that although J.R. never talked back to him, he always walked around under a dark cloud. Derek was worried that negative energy was contagious."
As our Kelly Dwyer noted back in July, regardless of Jackson's feelings toward Smith — whom the Zen Master had viewed as a possible source of Dennis Rodman-like energy for the Knicks, but who had underwhelmed during the first two months of the season for a team careening toward the worst campaign in franchise history — it seemed staggering that as experienced an NBA operator as Jackson would so willingly throw salt on a player who was set to enter free agency after the season, and that, at no point in the months between his January chat with Rosen and the July publication of the piece, did he think better of airing dirty laundry that could have had a negative effect on Smith's chances of finding lucrative future employment.
Smith opted out of the final year and $6.4 million of his contract in July, only to wither on the vine in free agency until Cleveland brought him back on a two-year, $10 million deal with a player option in Year 2. The lack of suitors for J.R.'s services probably had more to do with 11 NBA seasons full of erratic on- and off-court behavior and a dismal performance in the 2015 NBA Finals, but it's possible that Jackson's comments didn't help much, either.
With the Cavs back in Manhattan on Friday to take on the New York Knicks, Smith was asked about his reaction to Jackson's comments. He was plenty forthcoming, according to ESPN.com's Ian Begley:
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"It was crazy to me because I try to leave my personal life on the side and when somebody sits there, sits behind a desk and tells you to open up on what’s going on with you, you’re thinking that’s going to be between the two of y'all,” Smith said in an interview with ESPN.com on Friday morning. “So, for me, it tells me something I already knew. But to come from someone like Phil, it's just, it’s crazy. It makes you not want to tell anybody anything [that has] anything to do with your business. It was tough, but that’s how he handles stuff, that’s how he does it." [...]
Smith was asked on Friday if he thought Jackson’s disclosure of a private conversation would be questioned by others in the NBA.
“I’ve talked to a few people and they don’t understand why he did it, but I definitely won’t have that conversation with anybody else after that. So it just stuck with me. It’s all right,” Smith said.
Well, no, it's not really all right. Jackson should've thought better of publicizing a player's relationship problems after he'd already jettisoned him, and while Smith's not exactly shy about sharing his personal affairs with the general public via Twitter, Instagram and assorted other means of communication, he's certainly well within his rights to want the agency to control those disclosures and to feel like his confidence was betrayed for the sake of, I don't know, a favor to an old friend? Very little about the way this went down seems "right."
Now, though? Yeah, sure, it's all right. While Smith experienced a customary flameout in the postseason and struggled in the Finals, Cleveland remains an absolutely perfect environment for him — one in which he's free to take tough shots to his heart's content, where his high-volume and accurate catch-and-shoot 3-point gunning makes him a perfect complement to the on-the-ball playmaking of LeBron James and Kyrie Irving, where he (by his own admission) finds himself less active in the wee hours of the night, where he isn't counted on to be a constant force but rather can make major contributions as an occasional X-factor.
It is — for now, at least — the warm, safe, inviting home for him to be exactly who he's supposed to be in this league ... which, by the way, is something else Jackson told Rosen.
"We made the trade to Cleveland because that was the best place to get J.R. and Shump playing ball the right way," he said. "The money that comes back to our cap situation is the benefit of these trades. We need to get out from under our obligations of contracts."
Smith and Shumpert went on to make major contributions to a team that won the Eastern Conference title, giving J.R. the opportunity to crow, and both got new contracts this summer to return to a club expected to once again vie for the NBA championship. Jackson used the salary cap savings he'd been able to accumulate since taking the reins through deals like that one to add multiple pieces aimed at crafting a more stable and defensively capable roster, while still retaining plenty of flexibility to potentially make more additions next summer.
The Cavs are 7-1 and look like the class of the conference, even without injured point guard Kyrie Irving. The Knicks are 4-5 with Carmelo Anthony still getting his legs back under him after surgery, looking roughly average today (no mean feat for a team fresh off losing 65 games) with No. 4 draft pick Kristaps Porzingis looking like a real building block for a pretty promising tomorrow. The separation may well prove to have been the best thing for both parties, even if it's understandable that there'd still be some resentment on Smith's side. Luckily, he'll get his opportunity to drain that abscess Friday night by linking up with his high-scoring mates and aiming to give Phil's roundball deities another round of agita.
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
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