One of the most interesting players in the NBA during his playing career, JR Smith has officially begun a new chapter of his life. At 36 years old, he’s starting college and will participate on the golf team at North Carolina A&T.
Smith played 16 years in the NBA after completely skipping college and was highly successful. After winning two NBA championships, he’s now a freshman walk-on who will be pursuing a degree in liberal arts.
“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,” said Smith in a recent virtual press conference.
This gives Smith the opportunity to play for a HBCU, which was enticing to him when choosing where he wanted to begin this journey.
With the college being located in Greensboro, North Carolina, Smith will ultimately end up going to school in the same state he originally was set to play college basketball at. Before skipping to go straight to the NBA, Smith was supposed to play at North Carolina under Roy Williams in ’04.
