According to James Herbert of CBS Sports, J.R. Smith said he was honored to be compared to Dennis Rodman in a Q&A with Phil Jackson.
Phil Jackson’s latest comparison is between Dennis Rodman and J.R. Smith. Normally that would be a compliment to compare a player with a hall of famer, but not really in the way that Jackson compared the two. The question about Smith came from Steve Serby from the New York Post.
Q: How do you plan to try to get through to J.R. Smith to put an end to all his immature on- and off-the-court antics?
A: I don’t know if that’s possible or not. He might be one of those guys that’s a little bit like Dennis Rodman that has an outlier kind of side to him. But I’m gonna get to know him as we go along, and we’ll find a way to either make him a very useful player on our organization, or whatever.
So, J.R. Smith might be similar to Rodman, but not in a way that a player would want. Although, instead of reacting negatively, Smith took a nicer spin on Jackson’s comparison:
Last time I checked Dennis Rodman’s got what three, four rings? I’m not offended by that. It’s an honor. He’s a Hall of Famer. And to be put in the same words as a Hall of Famer is something special. So I’m not offended at all.
We can always count on some kind of J.R. Smith story that makes us say “huh?” That being said, the fact that Phil Jackson had to deal with a character like Dennis Rodman could prove to help in dealing with Smith. For the Knicks’ sake, hopefully sixth man of the year J.R. Smith shows up this season instead of off-court shenanigans J.R. Smith.
