I stumbled upon Charles Bethea’s profile on J.R. Smith for The New Yorker via Don van Natta’s list of stories and was able to spot some interesting points that Clark made in his book.
Looking over Clark’s list of tools, Bethea’s story pointed me to Tool 38: Prefer archetypes to stereotypes. Smith is not a stereotypical professional athlete or basketball player, and there is no attempt to paint him in such a manner. Instead, Bethea hits on two of the established archetypes in his story: Winning the prize and the ugly duckling.
As far as winning the prize is concerned, Bethea details Smith’s account on when things weren’t working for him in New York: He worked too hard, then partied too often and then found trouble due to marijuana. Smith was discredited by people such as his former head coach George Karl, but his career was validated by the Cavaliers’ NBA Finals championship. It was a win that seemingly helped Smith get past the many criticisims–both fair and unfair–he’s been subjected to over the years.
As far as the ugly duckling is concerned, this comes up from Smith himself. His youth was not, once again, stereotypical in the idea that he was always a hot-head basketball standout. Smith explains how he was bullied growing up, and that people who think it was the other way around are misguided. Smith hit a growth spurt as he got older, which transformed him into a talented prospect who eventually skipped college altogether to play professionally. This ugly duckling angle isn’t a major crux of the story, but it is certainly tapped into by Bethea enough that it draws a reader into Smith’s story. I can honestly say this profile gave me a clear picture of Smith that I completely lacked before.