J.R. Smith made headlines earlier this year when the 35-year-old decided to enroll full-time at the HBCU North Carolina A&T while also competing on the golf team.
The two-time NBA Champion made the jump straight from high school to play in the NBA back in 2004, never attending college. After he retired from his 18-year NBA career, the former champion still had NCAA eligibility left and decided to use it to play golf.
In a minute-long video posted today, Smith revealed that he got a 4.0 in his first semester of college. Just a couple of days ago, he tweeted out that he thought he fell short of his goal. Today, he received word that he earned a 4.0 – academic perfection!
“I can’t even describe the feeling, I ain’t even gonna lie,” Smith said. “A lot of hard work went into that sh*t.”
“I can’t even describe the feeling… especially when you don’t think you can do it… you always hear about your disabilities…”
JR Smith got a 4.0 in his first semester at college!! 🔥 @TheRealJRSmith pic.twitter.com/y7pm5F0gnj
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) December 14, 2021
Smith would tweet out his college experiences after many thought he wasn’t actually going to class or doing the work.
Everyone around the city keep asking me "who you got doing your work" 😂😂 shit me lol I'm really trying to learn something tf
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) August 25, 2021
Joined a study group for my African American Studies class on #groupie an my classmates don't think it's me 😂😂😂😂
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) August 25, 2021
Man I've been eating junk food my whole life and no I got to quit cause I'm learning about nutrition in my #FCS class. African Americans especially have to cut out so much fast food and sugar in our diets. Diabetes rate is way to high an going higher. #nutritionclass
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) August 28, 2021
His tweets were raw and oftentimes funny reading about some of the realizations he was finally having.
I hated school growing up and I knew this would be a challenge, but that's not going to discourage me one second. You have to be able to buckle down and lock into new journys and challenges coming in your life. Observe, learn and adapt.
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) August 27, 2021
Sports fans were able to relate with the NBA champion through he tweets, as he was experiencing something that many of us had gone through. Anyone who has attended college at some point could relate to what Smith was going through.
Congratulations to J.R. Smith on achieving a 4.0!
