Being a sport helped JR Smith discover a new passion. It is basketball that led the 2x NBA champion to learn that he is ‘addicted’, but not to the sport in which he made a name for himself. A visit to a basketball tournament in Houston saw him make a detour, that would open up another path for him in the future. All of this was thanks to Moses Malone’s invitation for the then-Nuggets player to take a swing. He gamely did so and enjoyed it.

Hitting the ball may have been beginner’s luck, but it got JR Smith hungry for more. The NBA veteran elaborated on the same in an interview. He said, “Then Moses Malone, the Hall of Famer, he was like, ‘Young fella come hit this ball. I went out there, hit the ball and hit literally a perfect drive. And I was like, ‘There’s nothing to it.’ Like golf— you don’t have to be an athlete essentially.” As Smith executed the drive to perfection, he thought this sport was not at all hard.

This stance was put to the test just minutes later as Smith faced a few challenges with his subsequent attempts to drive the ball. He recalled, “Not an hour and a half later, I come back on and I couldn’t hit the ball again. It was literally like an addiction, immediately. I saw people laughing at me, like, oh he thought it was easy, but I was like, I got to get this, I was hooked.” While golf is a pastime for NBA stars, the 2x NBA champion has taken it rather seriously.

While several ex-players take up the role of a sports analyst on television or start a podcast, J.R. Smith decided to take up golf. NBA stars like Stephen Curry and Michael Jordan are practitioners of golf, but the 2x NBA champion has taken it to a whole new level. He went back to college after calling time on his NBA career and entered NCAA golf.

The Golden State Warriors star clinched the American Century championship in July. Smith does not have a tournament win, but the addiction from 2009 saw him clinch a college honor.

J R Smith’s pursuit of golf saw him claim collegiate honors

JR Smith was named ‘Aggies’ Academic Athlete of the Year’ in 2022. Smith had revealed that he had scored a 4.0 GPA in his Liberal Studies, and he was vulnerable about sharing the news with the world. He emotionally took to social media to celebrate achieving his goal. “I can’t even describe the feeling,” he said. “A lot of hard work went into that s—.”

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The 38-year-old made his golf debut in the Elon Phoenix Invitational and hit two birdies in the first five holes. He struggled on the remaining thirteen, finishing with a score of 10 over 81. The 2x NBA champion was motivated to chase the high of the earlier birdies. This was similar to his time on the course after the “Perfect Drive” in 2009. There were struggles later on, but Jr Smith may not have had people laughing at him en route to his T77 finish on debut.

The 2x NBA champion-turned-collegiate golfer has proven himself to be more than a basketball player. Even after retiring from the NBA, his addiction has kept him in the sports arena.

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