He may be best known for his lengthy NBA career (and the two championship rings gracing his fingers), but J.R. Smith is way more than just a basketball player. He’s also a college student, and not only that, he’s a college golfer, too.
Recently Smith sat down with GOLF’s Claire Rogers for The Scoop, a wind-ranging interview conducted over a couple of bowls of ice cream.
The chosen flavor for this episode was chocolate hazelnut, but the discussion was all about Smith’s love of golf, and his current occupation as a student-athlete at North Carolina A&T State University.
But how exactly did Smith, a 38-year-old retired NBA star, end up back in college? The spark of inspiration came from another NBA Legend and avid golfer, Ray Allen.
As Smith explained, Allen throws an annual shootout golf event Smith plays in, where a large group of friends compete across “36 holes a day, for four or five days.”
A few years ago at the event, Smith noticed Allen frequently working on his laptop, and eventually he decided to ask Allen what he was getting up to.
“He was like, ‘I’m working on my Master’s degree.'” Smith shared, “And I’m like, you’re Jesus Shuttlesworth, what do you need a Master’s degree for?”
With that, Allen talked to Smith about his “mindset of continuously getting better every single day as a human being. Not so much an athlete, not so much working on your jump shot… just literally getting better as a man consistently every single day to where you’re so well-rounded as a person you literally have no insecurities within yourself,” Smith explained.
“And that resonated with me so strongly because I only looked at myself as a basketball player… but that’s all I’ve given them to show.”
But Allen’s advice made Smith realize, “I’m way more than a basketball player, I’m a man with so much integrity and thought and awareness of my surroundings. I can’t look at myself just as an athlete, but I don’t want other people and my kids looking at me as just an athlete.”
So after weeks of mulling over his chat with Allen, Smith finally decided he would go back to school and get his degree to “challenge myself to be better every single day.”
Watch the complete interview with Smith above or on GOLF’s Youtube channel to hear more about his recent journey, including how he ended up playing college golf and the similarities between golf and basketball.
