<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">A father's love and advice can protect a son from only so much. Pete Smith knows because he has spent so much time dispensing both to his son the past six months that his resources are near exhaustion. Pete Smith is working overtime these days trying to help his son, Hawks forward Josh Smith, solve the mystery that is the NBA's proverbial rookie wall, a theory neither father nor son is convinced is legitimate. "I don't think there's any such thing, not if you love what you do," Pete Smith said. "And Josh is loving what he's doing." But others have seen the signs, the lapses --- both mental and physical --- and the son's monumental struggles since he became an overnight superstar with three perfect dunks on a life-changing Saturday night in Denver a month ago. It should be clear to most that Smith's once-soaring season has smashed into something, a wall or whatever, at a speed that far exceeds the posted limit. The question is, has Smith's attitude taken a dark turn since he won the NBA's slam-dunk competition? A blizzard of attention and adulation can do that to an impressionable young psyche. Or is he simply experiencing the trials and tribulations that all rookies do? "He's going through it and he doesn't even know it. He doesn't even know it," Hawks coach Mike Woodson said. "The fact is he doesn't know how to play hard all the time, and those are the things that we as a coaching staff, and me specifically, have to continue to teach him. That's why you can't take a moment off on the floor, not one second. If you do, you'll get embarrassed." </div> Source
