NBA to suspend J.R. Smith 5 games for smoking weed



Say it ain't so, J.R. Say it ain't so.

According to Yahoo! Sports Adrian Wojnarowski, J.R. Smith will be suspended for violating the league's substance abuse policy.



Man, the Knicks 3 year, $18 million deal with Smith is looking solid right about now. First, just about a week after he signed the deal it came up that he needed fairly major knee surgery that would sideline him about four months, putting him in danger of missing the start of the season.

Now, Smith will miss five games, reportedly for resting positive for marijuana. From Woj's article.

The suspension is expected to be for five games, a source told Yahoo Sports.

The NBA is expected to formally announce the suspension Friday afternoon, sources told Yahoo Sports.

Smith tested positive for marijuana, a source with direct knowledge of the result told Yahoo Sports.

...

Smith's career has been checkered with issues, including a 90-day prison stay for causing an accident that killed a passenger in his car in 2007. The NBA suspended Smith seven games in 2009 for his role in the crash.

Smith has also had several other suspensions, including one for his part in a 2006 Denver Nuggets-New York Knicks brawl (10 games) and a 2007 nightclub incident (three games).

So now the Knicks not only have to worry about Smith being healthy — they'll also need to play without their 2nd leading scorer for the first five games after he's back to full strength.

As Woj notes, this isn't the first time Smith has been in trouble, calling in to question why the Knicks would give him a 3 year deal in the first place. On the one hand, New York's hands were tied. They were over the cap and the only way to sign any kind of impact player was to sign the players already on the roster such as J.R. He was also coming off of a monster season, averaging 18.1 points per game and winning the NBA's 6th man of the year award. Despite all that, Smith has been a ticking time bomb for quite some time, and now that he has some semblance of job security it's not shocking to see him slip up.

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