Plastic Man Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One-on-One with Josh Smith -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Jessica Camerato for HOOPSWORLD.com Jan 25, 2007, 14:05 Josh Smith gives himself a thumbs down for putting his two middle fingers up. The NBA fined Smith $25,000 for making obscene gestures following an ejection during the Hawks’ January 20 loss to the Bobcats in Charlotte. Smith shares what he has learned from his costly reaction with Jessica Camerato in this exclusive BNS interview prior to Wednesday night's game against the Boston Celtics. Alright Josh, what have you taken from that incident? You know, think before I act. Obviously I let my emotions get the best of me but you know you learn from your mistakes and I learned big time from it. Whether it was just the knowledge of the big fine that I got, I learned from it. It’s really easy to get excited. Your adrenaline’s going … Exactly. How can you control that? Just kind of calm down a little bit. If I see myself getting too emotional or too caught up, I just kind of take a deep breath and just relax a little bit because I’m an emotional person, an emotional player too. You know when I’m in the game, when I get in the game, I’m in there and, you know, I want to win so bad that I just put it all out there. Where does all that emotion come from? Why are you so passionate about winning? Maybe from my dad back in the day. I want to win so bad and I want my team to win so bad . If it takes another teammate, to get them woken up, I’ll do that. I’ll do whatever it takes to win. I don’t want to be labeled as a loser and I don’t think anybody does. I just get riled up and try to get my teammates pumped up too. You talked about maybe that came from your dad. Can you explain that? He used to play in the ABA. He used to play basketball in Atlanta. He’s a legend in Atlanta. Everyone knows him from the playground and they really respect him. They say I resemble my dad so I’m guessing that’s where I get it from. What did your dad say to you after the incident? He was real disappointed. I really didn’t want to call him. I’m sure he called you. I called him and he kind of got in my ear a little bit and I knew that was coming. But I was just telling him I messed up, that was it. How does it help to have someone like your dad riding your back and giving you tough love? It does, it does, not to push you too hard but, you know, let you know when you mess up, let you know that you messed up. Moving forward in the season, no more incidents like that … Mm hmm. What are you hoping for in the rest of the season? To learn from each game and get better and try to be a playoff contending team later on down the line. Just everybody grow with each other and continue to play hard. What is there about the Atlanta Hawks that’s hard to tell on paper? That we never give up, we play hard, we never give up. Teams understand that it’s not going to be an easy win. If they’re trying to come in and beat us, we’re going to fight. We’re going to fight until the end. The Celtics learned that last week in Atlanta. (Laughs) After going 0-6 in the first quarter, Smith would score 21 points in a 82-76 comeback victory against the Celtics. Atlanta has beat Boston twice in the past two weeks. Smith is averaging 13.1 points and 7.8 rebounds on the season. The Hawks are just one game under .500 in the month of January. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlayaPat420 Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 I like this interview and I think it's great for him to be playing at home. His dad for some reason reminds me of Shaq's stepfather back in the day. When I see him in the crowd, he looks very focused and like he won't take his son slipping. Good interview. Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gsuteke Posted January 26, 2007 Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 he had a chance to say some negative things there and passed. as long as the losing doesn't get into their heads the Hawks should be OK down the line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Jdawgflow Posted January 26, 2007 Premium Member Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 This is definately an encouraging article. Maybe Josh will end up being our leader before too long. He has looked like he wants it more than anyone else on our team, that for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Plastic Man Posted January 26, 2007 Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2007 too bad hoopsworld is about the only non-hawks website to consistently give us positive press. seems like espn loves to see us fail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now