J.R. Smith linked to Gangs

Did a search and nothing came up. I was disappointed when Scott let him go, but he may have known something we didn't outside of his criticized work ethic.

Denver Nuggets shooting guard J.R. Smith is being linked to gangs once again because of the way he posts his updates on Twitter. This isn’t good news for Smith, as he just got out of jail where he served 24 days for causing a car accident that ended up killing his passenger.

The Denver Post explains why it is logical to think Smith is involved with the Bloods street gang.

Nuggets guard J.R. Smith’s tweets are raising questions among fans. Several recent posts by Smith on his page — twitter.com/jr_smith1 — are written in a way that is commonly associated with the Bloods street gang.

Words that would have a “C” in them are replaced with “K,” or if a word has both in them, the “C” is removed altogether. Smith has nearly 15,000 followers on his Twitter page.

“Those are still little messages that are being transcended back to some of the neighborhoods,” said Rev. Leon Kelly, executive director of Open Door Youth Gang Alternatives in Denver. “Not to say in no way is he promoting a gang. But people got to understand that a lot of these kids come from gang neighborhoods. Their friends are still involved in doing what they do. Just because one was able to get out of that lifestyle, many of them don’t forget where they come from.”

On a post Sunday, Smith exclaimed “Vegas here I kome!” Last week he wrote that he “Kant wait to get bak in the swing of things.”

A post last week, upon his release from jail, caused an online debate among Denver Post readers about the topic. Smith, at the time, thanked his fans and wrote, “I just Kame home. . . . I kouldnt have done it with out yall.”


This whole mess will just give Nuggets Coach George Karl more reasons as to why Smith should continue to ride the pine until he matures. Even if the will to start is not the reason J.R. starts to clean up his act, Smith needs to get his act together before he gets killed.