First benching, shame on me; second benching, shame on you.
New York Knicks coach Mike Woodson benched enigmatic guard J.R. Smith for the second time in four nights Tuesday during the Knicks' 108-98 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats that ended New York's five-game winning streak.
Bleacher Report posted several tweets from reporters about the Smith incident, but the most intriguing came from Northjersey.com's Steve Popper, who reported two ominous quotes from Smith about his benching.
"JR packing luggage. Never seen that." Popper tweeted. A half-hour later, Popper tweeted a quote from Smith: "J.R. continued: If I'm not helping the team, there's no point in me being here."
Woodson benched Smith after the NBA fined him $50,000 for untying the shoelaces of opponents in the lane on the free throw line. Woods was quoted as saying after the first game against the Dallas Mavericks' Shawn Marion that Smith wouldn't do it again, but he did it again against the Detroit Pistons' Greg Monroe, earning the fine and subsequent benching.
Woodson, however, gave no real reason for Smith's latest "did-not-play" line. New York Daily News reporter Jason Botte tweeted, "Woodson redux: "I'm not even commenting on JR. I just didn't play him tonight."
On Monday, Woodson lashed out publicly at Smith. ESPN.com quoted the Knicks coach saying, "The bottom line is he's got to be more of a pro and do the right things and just concentrate on playing basketball. That's the name of the game, nothing else. You got to concentrate on your craft and what you're being paid to do -- that's play basketball. ... That's all I want him to do."
Woodson didn't even want Smith to do that on Tuesday night, and Smith is acting as if he's done with the Knicks.
From Bleacher Report's Jared Dubin (@JADubin5): JR also said "Communication from my end is over" and "JR says 'For (the shoelcace incident) to be the trigger point for all this to happen is ridiculous.' "
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