Punishment leaves Knick fit to be tied
Strange behavior seems to follow J.R. Smith, who was benched by the New York Knicks and fined $50,000 by the NBA for “recurring instances of unsportsmanlike conduct” stemming from his recent shoelace antics.
While playing for Zhejiang of the Chinese Basketball League in 2011, Smith had unreasonable demands on the kind of car needed to carry him around the city, skipped practices for shopping excursions in neighboring cities and had a continued pattern of insubordination.
There also was the time he spent a weekend running up a room service tab of $3,000.
Apparently Smith kept ordering food and stacking piles of trays upon trays “just to see if they would keep bringing it to the room,” a source said.
All of the food went uneaten, and all of it was put on Zhejiang’s tab.
The latest episode involving Smith began Sunday when he untied Dallas Mavericks forward Shawn Marion’s shoelaces during the second quarter of the Knicks’ 92-80 victory. He was warned by the league to “refrain from further conduct of this nature” before the Knicks’ following game Tuesday against the Detroit Pistons, but that didn’t seem to stop him from attempting to untie the shoes of Pistons big man Greg Monroe while lined up at the free-throw line during that game.
Knicks Coach Mike Woodson benched Smith for Thursday night’s game against the Miami Heat.
Driving Mr. Puig
There will be no need to yell at Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Yasiel Puig to slow down anymore. At least not behind the steering wheel.
Puig has hired his cousin as a full-time driver following Puig’s arrest for reckless driving Dec. 28. Puig was clocked driving 110 mph in Florida, where the speed limit is 70 mph. His mother was in the car at the time, a fact that was at the center of the dashboard cam video of Puig’s arrest.
Dodgers President Stan Kasten, who talked to Puig on Thursday, relayed word through KSPN-AM in Los Angeles that his star outfielder is giving up the car keys.
“I give him credit for taking that step if nothing else,” Kasten said during the interview.
Puig has a previous speeding arrest from April. He was caught driving 97 mph in a 50 mph zone in Chattanooga, Tenn., where he was playing for the Dodgers’ Class AA team. The charges were dismissed later.
“I sat him down myself when that happened and made it clear what we expect of him,” Kasten said. “I said then that, even if he thinks he can get away with it because he’s in Chattanooga, if you ever get to the big leagues, nothing - nothing - is going to escape attention.”
A driver is a good step in the Dodgers’ ongoing efforts to tame Puig. There is no word if the team has found the strong-armed, yet sometimes erratic throwing outfielder a full-time cut-off man.
Rankings already?
It’s never too early to start thinking about the 2014 college football season.
Matt Brown of sportsonearth.com has already compiled his preseason top 25 rankings. His top 10 consists of Florida State, Oregon, Alabama, Auburn, Ohio State, Stanford, Oklahoma, Georgia, UCLA and Michigan State.
Not surprisingly, none of the eight SEC teams he ranked was Arkansas.
Louisville, which hired Bobby Petrino on Thursday to replace Charlie Strong as coach, was one of 15 teams included in his “next up” portion.
Quote of the day
“I’ve found a number of cold days on opening day, and a couple where
we called it a day. But I have not found one where, basically, it’s been largely rain.” Oaklawn Park General Manager Eric Jackson on the low attendance for opening day
Sports, Pages 20 on 01/11/2014