Nov 20, 2013; New York, NY, USA; New York Knicks shooting guard J.R. Smith (8) controls the ball against the Indiana Pacers during the second quarter at Madison Square Garden. The Pacers defeated the Knicks 103-96 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

Search the entire National Basketball Association, and you might find no other player who is more maddening for his team’s fans, in terms of both production and behavior, as New York Knicks guard J.R. Smith.

True to everything he is, that statement is meant as a simultaneous compliment and criticism of the enigmatic Smith, simply because he can be very good when he chooses to be.

Strictly in terms of his play, Smith is the embodiment of the type of NBA player that induces a fan reaction to the effect of: “No! Don’t do that! What kind of shot is that?! Oh… okay… good shot.”

Otherwise, Smith can drive his fans crazy through a variety of senseless shenanigans.

Typically for Smith, each side of that spectrum was most evident in consecutive years, over the past two seasons, long after the 10-year NBA veteran should have already matured.

Winning his lone Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2013, Smith had a career season as the primary complement that franchise player Carmelo Anthony needed to help secure the Knicks’ first division title in 19 years.

It can even be argued that New York’s success is most dependent on what Smith — not Anthony — contributes, since the Knicks generally know what they’ll get from Anthony. As for Smith, it depends on which player rolls out of bed, especially if that happens after he hangs out at a Manhattan hotspot until the wee hours of the morning prior to a noon tip-off at Madison Square Garden.

The 2012-13 season showed what Smith can be when he decides to remain focused, tries to be as selfless a teammate as possible and opts to lay low when it comes to avoiding needless trouble.

That year, Smith averaged career highs in points (18.1 per game), rebounds (5.3), and free throw attempts (3.9), as he made a concerted effort to get into the lane and drawing fouls over settling for too many of his patented, often ill-advised, step-back three-pointers.

Of course, that season was also a contract year for Smith, so perhaps that’s what motivated him to wisely heed then-head coach Mike Woodson’s pleading for Smith to become more of the complete player the Knicks needed him to be.

Once he got his money (and even before then), the juvenile, selfish, team chemistry-damaging side of Smith suddenly reappeared.

Going back to his non-aggressive, chucking ways, Smith failed to attempt a free throw in 27 of the 74 games (36.5 percent) he appeared in last season, including a mind-boggling four-game stretch toward the end of last year, when he attempted 60 (yes, sixty) 3-pointers while hoisting a franchise single-game record 22 treys against the Miami Heat, on April 6, all without getting to the line once.

Although he made 27 of those 3s (for a scorching 45 percent), the Knicks were a mediocre 2-2 in those contests, and there were plenty of other times that Smith was off, yet kept shooting 3-pointers while neglecting attempts to get into the paint,to either to draw a foul or find teammates for better shots.

Smith’s turning point actually came long before that, during the 2013 playoffs. With New York in the process of going up 3-0 on the Boston Celtics in a first-round playoff series, Smith’s unnecessary swinging elbow to Jason Terry’s face yielded a one-game suspension that contributed to the Knicks’ seven-point Game 4 loss and a downward spiral in Smith’s production soon followed.

After shooting 50 percent (6-for-12) in Game 3, and 46.7 percent (7-for-15) the game before, Smith connected on just 29.6 percent (8-for-27) of his shots over his final two contests of the series, while being a direct factor in New York struggling to close Boston out in a hard-fought six games, after the Knicks had earlier been on their way to what should have been an easy series win.

Unable to regain his form in the conference semifinals, Smith shot just 28.9 percent (26-for-90) in a six-game loss to the Indiana Pacers.

Those things can happen. But what took place next, can seemingly only happen with Smith, as more antics added to a long list of troubles — so many to list, that they were chronicled by Bleacher Report around this time last year.

Rather than being forthright with New York, Smith reportedly delayed his knee surgery until after he ensured a new deal with the Knicks. He promptly thanked them for that contract by missing the first five games of last season due to a marijuana-related drug suspension.

There were also the distractions of Smith advocating for his younger brother, Chris Smith, who although clearly unqualified to play in the NBA, took up a valuable roster spot with New York until he was later released by the team. And then, as only Smith can manage to do, he was fined $50,000 by the league for on multiple occasions, untying opponents’ shoelaces during games, after he was warned by the NBA and sternly advised by Woodson to refrain from such immature and unsportsmanlike conduct.

Now here’s the real kicker, last week, which truly typifies Smith’s good and bad sides.

A mere two days before Smith told ESPN New York’s Ohm Youngmisuk that he supposedly learned from his immaturity, and (don’t laugh) wanted to become a team leader for younger players (who appear to be more mature than Smith is), he had this to say on the shoelace pranks, to Youngmisuk’s colleague, Mike Mazzeo:

“I like to have fun. I would do it again if there wasn’t a fine.”

And that’s exactly why there is a fine for doing things like that, J.R.

Because after all you’ve done to prevent yourself from consistently being on par with that Sixth Man of the Year version of yourself, you still incredibly don’t get it after a full decade in the NBA.

It’s not about the shoelaces. It’s about respecting yourself, your teammates, your opponents and the game. It’s about, being a good role model for the league’s young fans instead of repeatedly acting like a fool. And most of all, it’s about not wasting the talent you have, so that you can instead live up to your potential the way the Knicks trusted you would when they resigned you two summers ago.

Like Anthony, who turned 30 in May, Smith (now 29, as of last week) is at a career crossroads. And like the time they shared a degree of success two years ago, they need each other. Anthony has always done his part and remained fairly consistent in being one of the league’s best players while avoiding the types of unnecessary distractions that Smith continually brings upon himself.

To be fair, in the wake of the trouble we’ve seen very recently, with NFL players like Ray Rice, Greg Hardy, Adrian Peterson and others, many of Smith’s transgressions pale in comparison.

And to his credit, Smith has always been among the first to stand in the Knicks’ locker room and accept blame after having a poor game that leads to a loss. He’s always been an honest, stand-up guy in that regard. And as we’ve seen, he can be an extremely effective piece on a winning team when he’s reeled in, perhaps in the way that maybe only new team president Phil Jackson and his brand new staff of handpicked coaching disciples might be able to do with Smith.

That’s why it’s perplexing when Smith ignores the good, sensible J.R. on his left shoulder and goes back to listening to that no good, troublemaking, clownish J.R. on his right shoulder.

But something has to give soon.

Playing at an age that should be Smith’s current prime with a small window before the usual decline that most NBA players begin to face after the age of 30, it’s now or never for Smith to finally grow up — for the remainder of his own career, for Anthony, for Knicks fans and for a new regime which has already shown less patience than past ones in waiting for Smith to become everything he should be both on and off the court.