JR Smith walked away from the NBA after 2020 when he won the second championship of his career. LeBron James recruited JR Smith to the Lakers for the Orlando Bubble, after he had spent almost 2 years away from the league.
Smith’s career went downhill mostly after his blunder in Game 1 of the 2018 NBA Finals when he cost the Cavaliers a potential win.
But JR got the chance to play again for the Lakers. While he was nowhere near his old self during the Bubble, he did get minutes from time to time and played a part in the 2020 NBA championship win for the Lakers.
Since then, JR did not sign with any NBA franchise and has now decided to return to college.
JR Smith joined North Carolina A&T to get his undergraduate degree. But on top of that, JR also wanted to pursue the opportunity to play golf for the university’s team. Yesterday, the NCAA gave JR Smith the clearance to represent North Carolina A&T as a student.
Upon hearing of this news, JR’s old teammate LeBron James took to Twitter to send a heartfelt congratulations to him. He told JR that he was happy and proud of him and that he loved him. He wished him good luck in his new role as a student-athlete and cheered on the Aggies’ golf team in the tweet.
“So happy and proud of you my brother @TheRealJRSmith!!!! Love you kid! Best of luck you student/athlete GO AGGIES TEAM”
So happy and proud of you my brother @TheRealJRSmith!!!! Love you kid! Best of luck you student/athlete 🙏🏾💪🏾✊🏾👑🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 GO AGGIES ⛳️ TEAM https://t.co/3OJr6nnzGo
— LeBron James (@KingJames) August 24, 2021
Smith and LeBron won two NBA championships together, the most anyone LeBron has played with outside of the Miami Heat.
The 2016 NBA championship that LeBron and JR Smith won in Cleveland is considered one of the greatest title wins in NBA history. So the duo will forever be bonded to each other after accomplishing such a historic feat.
