JR Smith Update: Will See A Specialist In Beijing

On what seems to be some sort of Chinese version of Twitter, JR Smith posted the following this morning…

Going to see the docs out here in Beijing! See what’s going with this leg really appreciate the concern thank you all!

It appears that JR is already facing some heat from the Chinese media, who seem to be thinking that he may want to use this injury as a way out of the CBA.  JR adamantly denies this…

My goal was nor is not to leave! My goal is to win! An for us to win our team must be heathy!

According to Sina Sports, JR had an MRI performed on his knee this morning in Dongguan.  As far as I can tell no official diagnosis has been reported yet.  Yahoo! Sports has managed to contact JR Smith’s father, who says JR is “walking around and just sore.”  I suppose that’s a good sign, but neither JR nor his father are doctors.  Hopefully he is just fine and this is nothing but a big scare, but we’re going to have to wait and see. 

…and the situation continues to get more and more interesting.  The Wall Street Journal has reported that Smith is in some hot water with his team, Zhejiang, due to his decision to seek treatment in Beijing rather than get treatment directly from the team.

It’s unclear how severe Mr. Smith’s injury is. Zhao Bing, the Golden Bulls’ general manager, said the player repeatedly declined medical treatment from the team and arranged his own treatment in Beijing instead. “We warned him that he’s not allowed to go to Beijing without a proper medical check,” Mr. Zhao said, expressing his displeasure at Mr. Smith’s disobedience. “He just wouldn’t listen.”

Mr. Smith is “an experienced basketball player and a big name in NBA,” Mr. Zhao said. But “I think he should have been aware that CBA is not an easy game to play either.”

“We would like to improve ourselves through learning from the NBA players,” Zhejiang’s Mr. Zhao said of his star player’s refusal to heed the team’s medical protocols. “That was just the first game of the season. He really didn’t have to behave like this.”

Mr. Zhao posted a warning to Mr. Smith on Sina Weibo on Monday afternoon, saying the player should return to team as soon as possible “or face the consequences.” Mr. Smith responded in English less than an hour later, “My main goal is to get healthy! If you can’t understand that then maybe you should pick another profession!”

Uh oh!  Even if JR ends up being perfectly healthy it looks like his CBA run could wrap up after just one game anyway.