J.R. Smith took one look at the gathering horde of media Tuesday after practice and attempted a pre-emptive strike.
“I’m just worried about a win,” he said, before the first question could be uttered. “And that’s all.”
Not quite.
The Nuggets guard used to be a Hornets guard and clashed regularly with coach Byron Scott until the team traded him to Chicago last summer. Chicago then moved Smith on to the Nuggets.
While Smith largely kept his disdain for the Hornets organization to himself Tuesday, Scott was busy letting it all hang out to reporters.
“I thought his work ethic was the biggest problem we had,” Scott said. “Just the fact that I told him all the things that I felt he needed to do and then he commenced on telling you guys (media) that I never told him. I was talking to him right there with Willis Reed and (general manager) Jeff Bower, telling him what he has to work on.
“He would do it for one day and then he wouldn’t do it again. I’m trying to help a young man develop and he didn’t want to. He wanted to play his way, which was just shoot 3s and see how many dunks he could get. From a coaching standpoint, I can’t wait until a guy gets to a point two or three years later where he wants to play.”
Smith said he is not friends with Scott and won’t speak to his former coach unless spoken to first.
“It doesn’t matter to me,” Smith said. “They are going to say what they have to say … It’s nothing I should entertain. We got to go out there and win the basketball game.”
Nuggets coach George Karl said keeping Smith calm before his first game against his former team might be impossible.
“That’s hard to do in any game,” Karl half-joked. “How would I expect to do it against the team that traded him? He’s an emotional guy that we just have to talk to and hopefully help him have a great night.”
Staff writer Marc J. Spears contributed to this report.
