Along with fellow Kings rookie Omri Casspi, Tyreke Evans is battling it out for Rookie of the Year honors. (You can throw Bucks rookie Brandon Jennings into that mix as well.) Not a bad couple picks in the first round by the Kings this past summer.

But neither Evan or Casspi is good enough to have their shots count if they shoot an air ball. J.R. Smith learned this one the hard way Saturday night:

D’oh.

HT: Ball Don’t Lie

The full story is here, but I’ll sum up the sequence of events for you.

1. The Nuggets’ J.R. Smith throws an elbow at the Mavericks’ Antoine Wright.
2. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban takes umbrage. He is caught on television mouthing an obscenity at Smith, but maintains that he was “cordial.”
3. After the game, J.R. Smith offers Cuban an autographed pair of shoes, which Cuban declines.

No idea why Smith, who apparently was trying to make a goodwill gesture, opted not to simply speak with him after the game and clear things up. What is a billionaire like Cuban going to do with a pair of signed shoes? Incidentally, Smith’s gift ranks on the list of “Most Awkward Gifts That J.R. Smith Could Possibly Have Given To Mark Cuban”:

• A copy of Norton Antivirus
• Galoshes
• T-shirt with this screen-printed on front and back
• One’s own shoes, autographed
• Three and a half bags full of landscaping pebbles from Home Depot (one of the bags has a rip in the bottom and was leaking pebbles, but they put some tape over it, but it looks like it still might give way)
• Framed panorama photograph of city neither person has ever been to
• Handwritten book of recipes that you clearly spent a lot of time putting together, but like, who doesn’t know how to make a grilled-cheese sandwich
• Seven-year-old issue of Sports Illustrated with all the pictures of Anna Kournikova crudely torn out of it
• Commentary tracks for season three of “Home Improvement,” ripped from DVD and burned to CD-R
• Flask that reeks of Kool-Aid