J.R. Smith Graduates From North Carolina A&T, Fulfilling A Promise Years In The Making | Essence

J.R. Smith has accomplished nearly everything a basketball player could hope to achieve. He spent 16 seasons in the NBA, won two championships, played alongside some of the biggest names in the sport, and built a reputation as one of the league’s most fearless scorers. Yet one of the achievements he seems proudest of arrived far from the court.

On May 9, Smith graduated from North Carolina A&T State University, earning a degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Applied Cultural Thought. For the 40-year-old former NBA star, the moment represented the ability to overcome a challenge he once believed might be beyond his reach.

Smith’s path to graduation was anything but conventional, because after entering the NBA directly out of high school in 2004, college wasn’t a part of the plan. Years later, following retirement from basketball, he enrolled at the Greensboro-based HBCU and joined the school’s golf team, becoming one of the most recognizable student-athletes in the country. His decision began with a conversation during a vacation in the Dominican Republic.

“Probably the golf trip with Ray Allen,” Smith told ESSENCE. “I was in the DR doing this trip and I saw Ray running back-and-forth to his computer and I asked him what he was doing, and that kind of tipped the whole thing.”

Returning to the classroom required Smith to confront challenges that had followed him since childhood. Diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at a young age, academics was a tall order. While he made a career out of hitting difficult shots in packed arenas, college often demanded something different. “To me being a student again,” Smith said when asked what was harder than playing professional basketball. “Being in the NBA and playing in the NBA was something I was born to do and for me academics was something that didn’t come easy to me.”

Over the course of five years, Smith committed himself fully to the experience of college. He worked with tutors multiple times each week, spent long nights completing assignments, and gradually became more comfortable in an environment he once resisted. “For me, it just gives me the opportunity to continuously get better,” he said. “As I got older, I actually wanted to do it more opposed to fighting against it when I was younger.”

Despite the championships, accolades, and financial success, Smith explains that there was one major factor that motivated him to graduate. “My main thing was keeping my promise to my mother,” he said. As news of his graduation spread, congratulations poured in from former teammates including LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Richard Jefferson. Many celebrated the accomplishment as a reminder that growth does not end when a professional career does. Smith hopes others see something similar in his journey.

“To me just to inspire,” he said. “Inspire [people] to do something outside the box that they wouldn’t normally think of or normally do or something that they’re not good at and take your personal development as seriously as they could.”Smith’s story also serves as a powerful example of what HBCUs continue to provide: opportunity, community, and a place where people can reinvent themselves at any stage of life. “It’s never too late,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ever too late to go.”