While the life of a top-level athlete doesn’t give you a lot of time to seriously pursue other interests, that doesn’t mean that some don’t try and successfully manage to do it. For many of them in general, golf has become their second sport, and that is the case for NBA players as well.
You’ll find that quite a few of them do engage in some golf every now and then, with the most famous example perhaps being Charles Barkley, who seems obsessed with it. While he is well known for it, Barkley is actually not very good at the game itself, and it’s honestly a bit hilarious to watch him play. That is not the case with someone like J.R. Smith, though, who has accomplished a fair bit in the game since retirement, and he was recently on the “No Chill with Gilbert Arenas” podcast where he was asked to name his Ultimate NBA Golf Foursome.
(starts at 1:19 mark):
“Me, Steph (Curry), Mike (Michael Jordan), and probably Ray Allen.”
While he was nice enough to name Curry in there, Smith also said he’d easily beat Curry if they played 1-on-1. It would be an exciting matchup if it ever took place as they are both very good at golf and if there is one thing they can definitely do, it is beat Charles Barkley. J.R. also named Michael Jordan and Ray Allen in his ultimate team, and the former is as obsessed with it as he was with basketball.
Barkley once recounted during his playing days that Jordan called him at 4:00 AM to play Golf with him, and MJ himself once said that for a competitive person like him, Golf is what keeps him sane after retiring from the league. While that may be a bit much, it is always great to find a passion that you can engage in once your career is over, and there are so many things to do in this world as well.
