[draft] Hornets Introduce J.R. Smith
http://www.nba.com/hornets/news/quotes_040625.html
June 25, 2004
Hornets Introduce J.R. Smith
The Hornets 18th selection in the 2004 NBA Draft, J.R. Smith,
made his New Orleans debut on June 25, when he was introduced
as the newest member of the Hornets at an afternoon press
conference.
-------------------------------------------------------------
GENERAL MANAGER ALLAN BRISTOW
We thank everyone for coming today. Today is a pretty special
day for the Hornet history here in New Orleans and I'm just
trying to remember the Draft day and think about what I was
going to say about our first round draft pick and it's very
easy to talk about him. We were looking at the different
categories in yesterday's draft. One of the best athletes in
yesterday's draft and I think J.R. (Smith) fits that bill. I
think if you look at it, he was one of the best shooters in
yesterday's draft. As far as what kind of range a shooter has,
I think that J.R. is probably at the top of that list. I think
if you look at just pure leaping ability, he’s on the top of
that list. And you multiply all those things and you see that
we picked number 18, I think we got a terrific choice. I think
we got an outstanding athlete and an outstanding person. I got
a chance to meet the Smith family and I think you can see why
J.R. has handled himself in a very professional manner to this
point. We expect big things to happen with J.R. with the Hornets.
I would like for our owner to introduce our newest player.
OWNER GEORGE SHINN
I'd just like to start by introducing the people that made this
possible. Mr. And Mrs. Earl Smith, would you stand up? This is
J.R.'s mom and dad and next to them is Demetrius. This guy is the
future "Tractor" Traylor. His sister, Stephanie, and we’ve got
cousin Pete. I've just got a few comments. I'll let the coach talk
about this guy's talent and ability. One thing I'm excited about
is that I read quite a few times in our local newspaper here about
being old and slow and this guy is young and fast so I think we've
taken the necessary steps to move forward. Last night before the
draft started, I was sitting at the table with Allan (Bristow) and
Bob (Bass) came in and opened the book to this guy's face, pointed
at him and said 'if we can get this guy tonight, we'll be luck.' I
didn't know a whole lot about J.R. until he said that. We talked a
little bit and it fell right to that point. We are lucky to get
this young athlete, tremendous athlete.
Something kind of interesting to me is I was told that his favorite
announcer is Dick Vitale. I'm looking forward to him being a 'PTPer',
that's one of Dick's favorite terms, and with that we've got a
number 18 jersey because he was the number 18 pick and he's also 18
years old but he's picked the number so many young guys are picking.
He's going to wear 23 and if you don't think we're getting big at
this next position, look at this guy. We're happy to have him....
J.R. Smith.
J.R. SMITH
It's been a long road. My family stuck with me, no matter what. I
think the best thing I have is my family and I thank my family. I
think this organization did take a big chance on me. Taking a
high-school guy is taking a big risk. I thank all my coaches, my
future coach, Coach Scott, my future bosses. I thank Byron for
coming out and speaking to me today, telling me how it was going
to be. I'm real thankful. One of my brothers couldn't be here
today. He's playing in an AAU tournament down in D.C. I just can't
say enough about family. They pushed me through the whole way; I
had great coaches that pushed me and now I have another coach.
Thank you. I hope to have a great time in New Orleans. Hopefully,
I'll stay a lot longer.
(on what he brings)
I know they're looking for another athletic wing player who wants
to get up and down. That’s my style of play. Shooting, definitely.
Bringing a winning attitude and definitely being a team player and
youth.
(on if he had met Coach Scott previously)
This is the first time that I had met him. I had been to a bunch of
Nets games, seen the type of style. I was always a Nets fan, being
from Jersey, and they have Jason Kidd, Kenyon Martin and those guys.
I've seen what he’s done with those guys, I know he can do the same
thing with me.
(on being a spectator at the Nets game one day and now playing in the NBA)
This is a big, big change. From going to high school and playing in
30-32 games to go and play 82 games. I know it's going to be a big
transition and I think I'm ready for it. Plus I have one of the
best coaches in the business. He's been there. He's won his rings.
He knows what it takes to win.
HEAD COACH BYRON SCOTT
Just like Allan (Bristow) said, this guy is off the charts in a
number of ways. You know, I made a big deal of high school kids and
being leery of them but I also made a big deal of getting better,
quicker, getting some youth in here and getting some athleticism in
here and this guy fits the bill. If you had a chance to see him
shoot the ball, you know we've got a guy that's already well equipped
to shoot the ball from long range, so you're going to have to guard
him once you cross half-court. And the way he gets up and down the
court and the way he jumps just makes for exciting basketball. So
we're really looking forward for J.R. to get here and get off to a
great start. He has one of the better backcourt mates in Baron
Davis and David Wesley and he has some veteran guys who can
definitely help him out and bring him along the way and we're
excited. We're really excited about this guy because we didn't feel
he would be there at the 18th pick so this is a blessing for us to
have J.R. here and we're excited about it and we're looking forward
to big things from him.
(on if he can help his development since he played the same position)
I think so. I think the one thing that I can definitely do is teach
him that two-guard position. That's the position I played for 14
years and I'm going to definitely challenge him to some of these
shooting games to see if he really has the type of range that I saw
on tape. But we're going to have a lot of fun. From what we've talked
about and talked about with other people, he's very coachable, very
humble, hard worker, wants to be the very best basketball player that
he can be and if he wants to be there with the type of staff that
we're going to put together here, from top to bottom, we're going to
work him, there's no doubt about that. I'm going to try and show him
every trick in the book as far as what he has to do to be successful
at the two-guard position.
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