Nuggets' Smith, Lawson Locked in Twitter Battle

DENVER -- After extensive investigative reporting, one reason has been uncovered for why Denver guard J.R. Smith called out Lakers star Kobe Bryant in a tweet last week.

"I'm trying to get my followers up,'' Smith said.

Yes, FanHouse has learned Smith and teammate Ty Lawson are locked in a battle to see who will be the first to reach 20,000 followers on Twitter. As of midday Thursday, it was as close as a Florida election, with Lawson's @tylawson3 leading Smith's @JR_Swish 17,741 to 17,630.

"I got to beat rookie to 20,000,'' Smith said with Lawson standing nearby.

"Not going to happen,'' responded Lawson.

Smith got a measure of publicity last week when, heading into last Sunday's big game against the Lakers, he tweeted, "Don't get me wrong, Kobe is great but not when he play me.''

Whether that did anything to the fire up the Lakers is hard to say, but they did come back from a 13-point deficit to win 95-89. And Kobe hardly was great, shooting 3-of-17 for 14 points, although he did hand out 12 assists.

"He's one of my young boys,'' Bryant said when asked after the game about Smith's tweet. "I don't take that real seriously. Look at the track record. I think it was something that was kind of said in jest.''

Smith didn't disagree with Bryant saying it was done in jest.

"Yeah,'' Smith said. "It's nothing personal. I just like our rivalry so anything that fires it up more works.''

Still, Nuggets coach George Karl, who read in Los Angeles-area papers about Smith's tweet, is monitoring the situation. His preference would be for Smith to scale back his tweeting.

"I don't think I have the ability to control all the craziness that is out there, from Facebook to Twitter, all the other things I don't even know about,'' Karl said. "I would prefer that we don't do it. I would prefer that we would have a respect of our opponent and keep what deep down inside we feel to ourselves.''

So what if Smith continues to possibly irk opponents with tweets?

"It might be discussed in organizational situations,'' Karl said.

Smith said he doesn't believe anything he tweets would fire up an opponent, saying, "They should be fired up enough when they play us.'' Still, Smith, who said nobody on the team has talked to him about his tweets, said he would be respectful if told to scale it down.

"If they talk to me about it, then I'll stop,'' Smith said. "But, if they don't, I'm going to keep going.''

This isn't the first time Smith has received publicity for his Twitter account. The Denver Post reported last summer that Smith allegedly wrote posts using lettering that was associated with the Bloods street gang, a practice he soon ceased.

Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups, speaking to HoopsHype.com last summer, criticized Smith for that, calling him "immature.'' But Billups said this situation isn't the same.

"That's a little different from ... the last time,'' Billups said. "This is J.R. having fun. And trying to generate some excitement about the game and the team. This is nowhere near like we were dealing with last summer. ... [The current tweets are] just J.R. It's like [Cincinnati wide receiver Chad] Ochocinco. They use that to generate some excitement.''

Smith liked the comparison to Ochocinco. He offered a smile when he heard it.

But what Smith liked even more was when it was suggested a mention of his Twitter account by FanHouse could get his followers up in his quest to overtake Lawson.

"Yeah, help me out, dog,'' Smith said.

Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com or on Twitter@christomasson