Totally different scenarios. Rudy took less money to come to the nba. He was a star in Europe playing a huge role. He also got baried behind the third best sg in the league. JR Smith has all the talent in the world and pisses it away. Rudy just wants a chance, he isn't demanding to be a starter.
But in the end, their situations are not all that different. Both complaining about playing time. One is vilified, one justified.
Predictably, the tatted up black one is vilified. I forgot who wrote it but recently someone brought up the very hypocritcal thought that black athletes typically get with the whole "all the talent in the world stuff" like they were bred to be athletes and if they don't succeed it's because they don't try as hard. While white athletes typically are painted as always maximizing on their limited skills and trying harder.
I'm seeing a similar idea with this argument. In the end, stripped down to Player A and Player B we're looking at similar situations really. Both players want playing time and have in the past openly complained about it. Rudy took it a step further publicly demanding a trade and received a fine for it.
In the end, I really don't see how it's not hypocritical to justify Rudy and say he's just doing it for an opportunity, then say that JR who is doing the EXACT same thing as Rudy... but intead Smith has maturity issues and a bad attitude.
