Redefined: J.R. Smith - First Season

Rolling? All right, here we go.

Camera speed.

And speed... J.R. hero interview.

Take one.

I need to wear a shirt for this?

I'm good, right?

When God was coming up

with the idea of basketball and the positions

and decided one of the positions was

a scoring or a shooting guard...

...the people he made in that moment were

Ray Allen and J.R. Smith.

J.R. was, like, the definition of outside of the box.

Tattoos...

he could shoot threes...

Ten three-pointers!

That's a Knicks record.

...crazy dunks...

you wanna hit buzzer beaters...

Oh, he did it!

You know that technically that's a bad shot,

but if J.R. shoots it,

it's just J.R. shooting.

Oh! He puts it in!

J.R. Smith at the buzzer!

If I'm asked to describe his persona as a player,

bucket-getter.

Unafraid.

J.R. Smith!

We just saw a man fly!

That's just such a great metaphor for life.

The next shot is going in.

J.R. Smith will likely

get suspended, it could be anywhere

- two to five... - It's unprofessional.

I think it cost him the game.

He's on the back nine in his career.

You know, obviously you don't really

understand what you've lost until it's gone.

He's going back to school.

He's enrolling at North Carolina A&T

to pursue a liberal arts degree

and hoping to play on the golf team.

He's petitioning the NCAA to allow him

to play golf.

A five-handicap isn't good enough

for collegiate competition.

In basketball, I'm a daredevil. I can shoot any shot.

I can make any shot. I know that in my head.

In golf, I don't know that.

The only reason why I know that

in basketball is because

I put the time into it.

I haven't done that with golf.

But it's coming.

For a long time, my purpose was basketball.

I made that my purpose.

I know who I am. I know who I've been.

It wasn't, again, till the last couple years

where I really took ownership of who I wanted to be

and who I cared to be, opposed to just...

settling for being a person

that has no substance.

Typically, you wouldn't see people in my shoes

going back to school, but...

I have so much to learn.

Academically. Mentally.

And socially, so many other areas.

- Hey. - Hey.

- Hey... got to. - How've you been?

What's goody, my boy?

- What's goody, my boy? - Look at that ball.

- We need to get that ball up. - What's up, bro?

- You know it. - How're you? Swish.

This my girl Shar.

What's good? What's good? How y'all doing?

To just make me more well-rounded as a person.

- What year are you in? - Senior.

Senior, oh, dope, what you studying?

- Business management. - Oh, word.

Yep, my cousin's a big fan of yours.

- Oh, appreciate it. - Yo, N.

- What's good, son? - You on campus?

Yeah, I'm out here, bruh. I was just talking to N.

- That's funny, yeah... - Yeah, that's my...

that's my big cousin.

Appreciate ya, man, take it easy.

What up? What up?

And I looked at his Instagram,

and I seen he was getting ready for school.

I was like, oh, wow.

It's still low-key crazy, like,

he's an actual, like, freshman student.

Now he is, man, cool.

I had it up in my mind

that I wanted to attend an HBCU.

I wanted to show young minorities

what it means to go to school.

And... how important it is to get your education.

HBCU stands for "historically Black

colleges and universities."

These institutions have been around since 1837.

They were founded in the Antebellum era,

which means prior to the Civil War.

Well, back in the day, we weren't allowed to go

to predominantly white institutions, PWI's.

And so, to prevent us from entering those schools,

they created the HBCU.

Educating African-Americans,

it was a revolutionary concept.

It's about advancing this country to a more just,

democratic society, and this is

what HBCU's have been since their founding.

They still serve that purpose, even to this very day.

An HBCU is all about

the culture of the campus.

History of the campus.

It's primarily for African-American students,

but we are very diverse,

and we pride ourselves in that.

I chose A&T because it had a great

liberal studies program,

and for me, for some reason,

like, I feel like it's on my path

to go to North Carolina.

And I was like, you know what? I'm going.

You coming back to the Knicks, bro?

I came from New York... all the way out here.

Oh, word? Y'all from the city?

Come back to the Knicks.

Come to the Bulls, man, that's my team.

The Bulls your team? Okay.

I miss being a basketball player.

I miss the grind of it, um...

I miss the camaraderie of the team

and miss the gym.

You know, everybody thinks their kid is gonna be great,

but you kind of know when your kid really has it.

I said everything gotta be a swish.

I said, if the ball hit the rim, and it go in, it don't count.

When I was, like,

eight or nine, I was probably shooting

a thousand a day, easy.

As he kept playing the sports,

he got better and better and better, so.

Like, in my head, I was M.J., Reggie,

Larry, Isaiah, Magic, like, all of 'em.

J.R. was just one of those guys.

You knew who he was, before anyone knew who he was.

Does that make sense? He was just always

on the radar, that this was a guy

that had a chance.

I always wanted to go to North Carolina.

M.J. was a Carolina guy, so that was my guy growing up.

And I wanted to follow in his footsteps,

go to UNC and be a Tar Heel.

For one minute, it was like, all right, cool,

going to Carolina, one more visit,

I'm meeting the players, I'm talking to 'em

left and right, coming in.

Then, over the course of three games in the summer...

JR Smith regarded by the scouts here

as the premiere shooter.

I'm playing with dudes who are number one pick,

number two pick, top five pick,

a lottery pick,

and I'm getting MVPs, all this shit.

You know, I was just like,

if they going, I can go.

And then sure enough, at the McDonald's Game,

it was like...

all the agents was calling my dad.

It was like, "Hey, man,

"he's gonna be the first round pick.

He gonna be this, he gonna be that."

And... I was like, what?

They told me, I said, "Oh, yeah, it's over."

Uh-oh, J.R. Smith.

Another 360.

Coach Hurley said, "You know, he never really

loved school, so if he can make the leap, he should do it."

We never really thought that it was gonna happen that fast.

With the 18th pick

in the 2004 NBA Draft,

the New Orleans Hornets select

J.R. Smith from St. Benedict's Prep.

It was nuts, man.

That first 24 hours, it was just like,

damn... I'm really a pro.

That was so crooked and nasty.

Pre-season, I was averaging

17, 18 points a game.

I'm doing something that, shit, I'm about to be...

I'm on... I'm on the "Next Kobe" list, like,

you know what I'm saying?

It didn't work out like that.

Pre-season isn't regular season and the post season.

My... rookie year,

I didn't play the first 30 games.

You don't have the slightest idea