J.R

Remember that time J.R. Smith was traded from the Chicago Bulls for the aging remains of Howard Eisley? Neither do I. In fact, neither does Howard Eisley. The Chicago Bulls wish they didn't, but they do, and the Denver Nuggets just think it's hilarious.
J.R. Smith certainly remembers, and who can blame him? Just days after being dumped from the team that drafted him, the frightfully underrated shooting guard was once again exchanged for pennies on the dollar.
Let's recall. In the summer of 2006, after his second year in the league, Smith was traded by the New Orleans Hornets to the Bulls in return for Tyson Chandler. The Bulls, looking to raise enough funds to land Ben Wallace, then wrapped Smith (and his modest rookie contract) in a blanket and dropped them in a basket on the Pepsi Center steps before ringing the doorbell and running off into the night.
In the three years since, Smith has put himself to work making regular appearances as the Nuggets' most explosive scorer while bravely forgetting the life he left behind in Louisiana and Chicago (all seven days of it!). Not bad for a 23-year-old with the ink of 7-11 nightshift attendant.
Fast forward to 2009 where, as if therapeutically, Smith quells the thought of those who came to doubt him with spontaneous bursts of offensive ingenuity; bursts of 11-triples-in-one-game and the slightly more melodramatic I'm-going-to-dunk-so-hard-I-destroy-myself. Consider them coping mechanisms, like Wolverine's mutant rage or the maniacal scheming of Lex Luthor.
It's a tough life but someone has to live it and Nuggets boss George Karl cautiously watches on. As one would expect from the union of any coach and cast-aside, the relationship has not been without incident. Many recall the infamous 2007 media conference in which Karl swore that Smith's post-season poppycock would be no more. He benched him the very next game.
While questions of his attitude and basketball IQ remain, those of his talent have long been erased, swallowed up in the 43-point wrath he unleashes on a United Center crowd last season; dwarfed by an historic showdown with Kobe Bryant in the 2008 playoffs.
Yet the two colliding views of Smith, of excellence and of frustration, continue to clash despite his best efforts and the success they bring his ball club. Whether or not his offensive feats will ever eventually trump his perceived intangible shortcomings remains to be seen. Until then, his conflicted soul wanders the American Rockies busting fools and dropping daggers.
If you listen closely in the Denver silence you can even hear the mountains whisper, "Howard Eisley? Seriously?"