Strangers Enjoy Day of Golf With J.R. Smith

Yesterday, Deadspin linked up the Examiner's tale of accidental golfing with J.R. Smith. My excitement had me sending out Christmas cards ten months early. Smith began last season by making believers of even his biggest fans, and in the playoffs, flashed the outrageous abilities that have lead to all those second chances. Here, he made no less of a positive (if confounding) impression on his partners-for-a-day:

It didn't really matter what happened the rest of the round. "That's the best shot I've ever seen," said Smith, a man I was beginning to realize was very misunderstood. He was a true gentleman. And like coaches such as the Nuggets' Jamahl Mosley have discussed, he seems focused on one thing: getting better. The same was true on the golf course. He is a raw talent with a knack for the long ball.

That's cool and everything, but what strikes me most is that Smith, only 22, is already taking up golf. But he plays at a public course, and doesn't roll with a crew, or make it a social activity with other Nuggets. Not to throw Jordan's name around casually, but this almost oblivious interest in picking up something and learning to do it well has to be a good sign. And regardless of his ego or attitude, the utter lack of pretense and refusal to make golf into just a rich man's pastime is, well, a little eccentric. "Misunderstood" implies that you're either good or bad; we might just have to accept that Smith's never going to make sense, no matter how we grade him in the standard basketball categories.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.