Dan Hurley sees what everyone else sees, the well-documented off-the-court problems, the bewildering on-court behavior, the poor shot selection.
Unlike everyone else, who has become used to J.R. Smith’s antics, they still surprise Hurley, the men’s basketball coach at the University of Rhode Island who helped mold Smith into an NBA player more than a decade ago.
For the two years they were together, at strict St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark, Smith was disciplined, Hurley said. He followed the rules. He stayed in line.
“My experiences with him for two years and the experiences of guys that played with him [at St. Benedict’s] are very, very different [from what everyone else sees],” Hurley told The Post in a phone interview Friday.
“I see the things that have gone on. I’m sure J.R. wishes he can do some things over. All I can say as a guy who spent a lot of time with him for two years was that the things that are going on were not my experience while coaching him. He loved the game, he loved working on his game, and he was a great competitor for me for two years.”
“I just want to see him get back to that type of mentality.”
The latest misstep for Smith — he was handed a $50,000 fine by the NBA for repeated incidents of untying, or at least looking like he was trying to untie, opponents shoelaces — led Knicks coach Mike Woodson to bench him for Thursday’s win over the Heat at the Garden. He was suspended for the first five games of the season for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy and he cost the Knicks a game in Houston last week for forgetting the score in a tie game in the final seconds and taking an ill-advised shot.
Wagner College coach Bashir Mason, teammates with Smith at St. Benedict’s, said he was most surprised by the shoelace fiasco. He feels Smith is searching for his game, and it’s messing with his head.
“I think he’s trying to find his game and in the mist [of that] he’s doing some things that doesn’t make sense to a lot of people,” said Mason, who echoed Hurley’s sentiments about Smith at St. Benedict’s. “The core of it is basketball. J.R. loves the game of basketball, he loves being a New York Knick, he loves his teammates, and he knows he’s not playing up to his ability. Part of it is him just acting out and trying to find himself and trying to find his game.”
Hurley wondered how different Smith’s career would be if he attended college rather than entered the NBA Draft right out of high school in 2004, the last year players were allowed to make the jump before the being forced to spend at least one year out of high school in college as part of the new collective bargaining agreement. He was set on attending North Carolina before the lavish life of the NBA, but becoming a first-round pick was too good to pass up.
“College for a lot of kids is a great way to develop socially on their own, getting away from home, doing your own laundry, developing friendships that are meaningful with normal people outside of sports,” Hurley said. “It certainly would’ve helped, but when you have the opportunity to become a professional, its a tough thing for a kid to turn down. His ultimate dream from the first time I talked to him was to be an NBA player.”
“We spent a lot of time together over two years preparing him for the next step. Obviously, I wish we would’ve prepared him better.”
Hurley, who still speaks with Smith’s parents but hasn’t talked to his former player recently, hasn’t given up hope. He still remembers the old Smith when he watches him on television, the disciplined, hard-working kid he coached at St. Benedict’s Prep, the player who never missed a practice and out-worked everyone else.
“He has to show the maturity to turn his situation around,” Hurley said. “He’s talented enough to do it. New York loves a comeback. People in sports love a comeback. If he can turn his situation around and help the team, he can re-write his story. People will love him again.”