JR Smith was drafted into the NBA in 2004, straight out of high school. He played for five NBA teams during his career, winning two championships during his 16-year NBA career. Coincidentally, both of these championships came alongside LeBron James.
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Before teaming up with Bron in 2014, JR played for the Hornets, the Nuggets, and the Knicks. During that time, he was known as someone who would actively look for his shot and try and score as much as he could.
However, things were different when he got on the Cavaliers and the Lakers. A large part of it was because of the composition of the team. Another part was due to the team mentality instilled by LeBron James. Smith talked about the same recently with JJ Redick on Old Man and the Three.
JR Smith shared the work ethic LeBron James brought
Winning an NBA Championship is not a one-person task. It takes a village, and for a deep playoff run to the Finals, the whole team must be well-equipped and ready to go. Talking to JJ Redick, JR Smith shared how coming from a prep school, the practices in New Orleans and Denver seemed like a joke to him. They used to be 45 minutes to 1 hour long, and the guys used to be out of the facility within 1.5 hours.
Even though he started building a routine for himself, things didn’t really change till he went to Cleveland. Talking about LeBron James, Smith said,
“His work ethic and his drive is ridiculous. It doesn’t matter if you’re the 15th man on the team or the second man on the team. He’ll work out with you, he’s gonna get shots up with you, he’s gonna talk to you, communicate with you.”
LeBron James not only worked towards getting better as a player himself but also worked on getting the team better as a whole. Smith talked about how that helped him and his teammates establish a winning mentality.
Thanks to this JR became a 2x Champ with Bron, winning in 2016 in Cleveland, and in 2020 in Los Angeles.
What is JR Smith up to currently?
Since JR never went to college, and came straight to the NBA, when he hung up his boots, he thought college was the way to go. He enrolled at the North Carolina A&T State University. He joined the university to pursue a degree in liberal arts, and also join the Aggies Golf team.
Smith was named North Carolina A&T Academic Athlete of the Year for 2021-2022 with a 4.0 GPA. LeBron James took to his Twitter to show love to his former teammate for the same. Even though the two aren’t teammates anymore, they still celebrate each other’s successes.
