By In one of the more surprising sports stories recently, former NBA player J.R. Smith has enrolled at North Carolina A&T University to further his education. While at college, he is going to play on the golf team. Now, it’s not super rare that people want to go back to college to finish their education and better themselves. However, you don’t hear a lot about high profile, championship-winning NBA players going to college at 35 years old. Perhaps a fellow student-athlete jokingly thought it was that J.R. Smith when they saw his name on the roster. That’s actually what happened. It wasn’t related to the golf team but it’s the same idea. Smith tweeted this just a few days ago.
Yep, the 2013 Sixth Man of the Year and 2004 first round pick is just another one of the guys. How funny is that? That must be quite a surprise for other students at North Carolina A&T to realize that an actual former NBA player goes to their school.
I think it’s really cool that J.R. Smith wants to further his education. I would guess his professional basketball career is over if he’s doing this. Not many NBA players could just casually attend college with how well known they are to many people. It’s also cool how Smith has such a great sense of humor about the whole situation.
First time being on a college campus
J.R. Smith never actually went to college before playing in the NBA. So believe it or not, this is J.R. Smith’s first time being on a college campus, at 35 years old. He’s of that era where it was still allowed to go straight from high school to the NBA. Fellow NBA greats like Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, and Kevin Garnett never went to college. J.R. Smith is obviously not on the level of Kobe and Lebron but this fact makes them similar in at least one way.
A moment of personal growth
The fact that Smith never went to college in the first place is what makes this story slightly less surprising.
It’s definitely not something a lot of NBA players would do after their playing time is done but they’re still fairly young in the rest of society. Props to J.R. Smith for taking action and attempting to improve himself intellectually.
J.R. Smith on the difference between the NBA and college golf
Speaking about playing college golf, J.R. Smith said “Obviously different environments from playing in front of 20,000 people to playing in a college golf gallery.”
“But it’s still as nerve-wracking as shooting a free throw in front of 5,000 instead of making a 5-foot putt in front of three. So it all correlates the same for me.” Interesting thoughts from Smith, it is indeed going to be quite the transition from playing NBA basketball to playing college golf.
Smith isn’t just any ol’ casual golfer that plays a few times on the weekends and varies wildly in results. He has gotten high praise from some of professional golf’s top players, including Dustin Johnson who said, “He can play.” That’s not too bad of a person to compliment you on your golf game. The first golf match for J.R. Smith and the North Carolina A&T golf team is on September 24-25.
I wish J.R. Smith the best of luck at this next stage in his life. Even before the sports world found out that he was going to college as a 35 year old multi-millionaire, He was truly one of the most unique personalities in basketball, having several memes poke fun at him.
I hope he doesn’t get heckled too hard at college by ruthless college students. Even though he played in the NBA and was for sure heckled by fans, college students are a different breed. J.R., go get that diploma!
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