Being a starter was an honor that Smith wanted more than anything. Throughout his career, he was a sixth man, an off-the-bench spark plug who never cracked the first five.
Prior to the beginning of the 2012-13 season, Marc Berman of the New York Post reported that Smith no longer had a desire to be a second-unit player.
I’d rather start. I’ve been playing [eight] years, coming off the bench. Whether it stays [that way] or goes, I’m going to be same person I am. I prefer to start. I’d rather be a starter. If not, I understand that.
…
It gets frustrating after a while. People saying, ‘he’s a sixth man, sixth man, sixth man’ when you believe you’re a starter. But you have to understand, it’s a team game and have to put individual goals aside.
It was a battle for Woodson to convince No. 8 that he was most valuable as the team’s top reserve, but the coach won.
And in the end, so did Smith.
Months after proclaiming that his heart was in the starting lineup, Smith was deservedly honored as the league’s Sixth Man of the Year, averaging career-bests in scoring (18.1 points) and rebounding (5.4 boards) to go along with 2.7 assists and 1.3 steals.
The Knicks won the Atlantic for the first time since 1994 that season and finished as the No. 2 seed in the East with 54 wins, the team’s most in the past 19 years.
Smith, who has been referred to as "J.R. Starks," became the third Knick to ever win the award, with Anthony Mason (1995) and John Starks (1997) also earning the honor.
Woodson was genuinely proud of the man to whom he had shown the kind of support that was absent for the majority of his career. Here’s Woody, per ESPN.com:
Couldn't have happened to a better guy. I'm so proud of him, in terms of buying in to what we wanted him to do earlier in the season. And it started this summer. I wasn't going to start him, coming into this year, and I knew that. And he bought in. He didn't like it, but he bought in. And it couldn't have happened to a better person, because he put in the time and he worked his butt off to get to this point, and he got rewarded for it. I'm happy for him.
Later in that press conference, Smith, "born and raised in New Jersey," said that he would “love to retire a Knick."
Barring a reunion down the road, it appears that Smith will finish his career elsewhere, away from the place where he grew up as a man and as a basketball player.
J.R.'s time in New York was an age of fun—of game-winners, wild dunks, awards and wins. It was an age of foolishness—of poor judgement on social media, crushing elbows, lack of scoreboard knowledge and painful losses.
Most of all, it was an age that Knicks fans will never forget.
