J.R. Smith Would Kindly Like you to call him Earl
Off-court issues and maturity questions have plagued the career of Denver Nuggets guard J.R. Smith, but when he returns tonight from his season-opening seven game suspension, he will be going by his given name, Earl Smith III.
Smith told the Denver Post, however, that he doesn't consider the name change a fresh start, as he doesn't want to forget his past struggles, he wants to learn from them.
In 2007, Smith was driving a car with two passengers when he crashed into another vehicle, ejecting him and friend Andre Bell from the car. Bell died from his injuries.
Smith was sentenced to 90 days in jail as a result of the crash, but was released early after he agreed to community service.
He also had an incident earlier this year with his Twitter account, when he was accused of promoting gang-like terminology in his Tweets, whatever that means. His account was later deleted.
Smith, who averaged 15 points per game last year, is one of the most explosive bench scorers in the league. In his absence this season, Denver has still managed a 5-2 start to the season without him, and the team does have more backcourt depth this year with rookie Ty Lawson in the mix.
Smith will also get some minutes as a backup small forward since last year's backup, Linas Kleiza, signed to play overseas.
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