J.R. Smith has won two NBA championships — and now has another accomplishment under his belt in North Carolina.
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How Many Rings Does jr Smith Have?
The former professional basketball player said he earned a 4.0 GPA in his first semester at N.C. A&T State University is a historically black college in Greensboro.
“Grades are in!” he wrote in a tweet celebrating his academic success on Dec. 14.
Smith, 36, has been chronicling college life since he returned back to school in August. He has posted about being a fan of tutoring sessions and complained about English papers.
“I’m so happy about this quiz,” he wrote on Sept. 6. “Man these joints have me stressed… out for real! I played in front of 20k for a long time but taking a quiz by yourself.”
More recently, he said he was recovering from his school’s homecoming, dubbed the Greatest Homecoming on Earth.
“It’s no tailgating like a #HBCU Tailgate #AggiePride is more than what we have it’s a culture!!!,” he wrote that weekend.
And in a state with longstanding college rivalries, he posted about those, too. In one tweet, he shared that he was related to someone with ties to N.C. Central University in Durham.
“My cousin is the head strength and conditioning coach at #NCCU literally my dad’s brother’s oldest son,” Smith wrote in September. “We used to live together before he started to play football at #TheU but now I’m at #NCAT and he’s at #NCCU family rivalry has started!”
His tweets have garnered thousands of reactions, with some social media users saying he inspired them to pursue a college education. Smith went directly to the NBA after graduating high school in 2004.
In the years that followed, he won championship rings with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020. But he traded the basketball court for a putting green when he joined N.C. A&T golf team this year, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Smith said he wanted to earn top grades to kick off his college career, but he wasn’t sure at first.
“Looking like I fell a little short of my goal,” he wrote on Dec. 11, adding he thought he got a 3.9. GPA. “4.0 will happen for sure! #NextSemesterIsMINE.”
When he discovered he had met his goal, he said he couldn’t “even describe the feeling” after putting in so much work. Some of his former teammates responded to an Instagram video about the announcement with congratulatory messages.
“Proud of you brother,” wrote Cavs player Kevin Love.
Former player Channing Frye commented: “NERD!!!!!”
N.C. A&T has 13,322 students, including more than 11,000 undergraduates. The school sits on a 188-acre campus in Greensboro, according to its website.