J.R. Smith to graduate from North Carolina A&T in spring 2026

J.R. Smith will walk across the stage at First Horizon Coliseum in May, capping a Greensboro comeback that began when the former NBA guard enrolled at North Carolina A&T in the fall of 2021 and joined the men’s golf team. The two-time NBA champion is set to graduate during the university’s spring 2026 commencement with a Bachelor of Arts in liberal studies with an applied cultural thought focus.

For Guilford County, Smith’s story has become more than a celebrity cameo. North Carolina A&T has used his path to show how the university serves students whose education does not follow a straight line, and Smith’s run at A&T has put a national spotlight on that mission. After a 16-season NBA career that included stops with the Hornets, Nuggets, Knicks, Cavaliers and Lakers, Smith chose to return to school in Greensboro and build a new routine around classes and golf.

The university’s athletics roster lists Smith as a fifth-year golfer from Millstone Township, New Jersey, and St. Benedict’s Prep. In 2022, after his first year at A&T, he was named the school’s Academic Athlete of the Year after posting a 4.0 GPA in liberal studies. That academic turnaround has been part of what made his second act resonate well beyond athletics, especially in a city where N.C. A&T is one of the most visible institutions.

Smith already carried major credentials into his college years. He won NBA championships with the Cavaliers in 2016 and the Lakers in 2020, and he was named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year in 2013. But his return to the classroom has given Greensboro a different kind of headline, one tied to completion rather than celebrity alone.

A&T’s spring 2026 undergraduate commencement for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business and Economics, and Science and Technology is scheduled for Saturday, May 9, at 2:30 p.m. at First Horizon Coliseum at the Greensboro Complex. Tickets are not required, the ceremonies will be livestreamed, and Queen Latifah will serve as undergraduate commencement speaker. Dr. Nia Danielle Banks will speak at the graduate ceremony on Friday, May 8.

Smith is also expected to speak ahead of commencement about what the degree means to him and what he hopes others take from his experience. For A&T, and for Greensboro, his graduation underscores the university’s role as a place where a second act can end with a diploma, not just a comeback story.