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Paolo UggettiESPN
Former NBA participant J.R. Smith has scored a reputation, picture and likeness cope with attire model Lululemon that may make him the model’s golf ambassador.
Smith, who went straight from highschool to the NBA in 2004, has been a walk-on on the North Carolina A&T golf workforce after returning to high school in 2021.
Smith at present is within the second semester of his freshman season on the HBCU. He’s the primary school golfer to signal a model ambassador deal equivalent to this one. And his standing as a 16-year NBA veteran has made him one of the vital fashionable school athletes within the sport.
In January, Smith signed with Excel Sports activities Administration for NIL illustration. Smith’s agent, Lance Younger, advised ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on the time that there was excessive curiosity from golf attire and gear producers in sponsoring Smith. Final yr was the primary time school athletes might revenue off their identify, picture and likeness through sponsorships.
Whereas Smith cannot promote Lululemon at NCAA-sanctioned occasions, he can seem within the model’s ads — as he did in a latest golf marketing campaign — and publish in regards to the model on social media, the place he has additionally been chronicling his return to the classroom as a full-time scholar.
The 2-time NBA champion made roughly $90 million throughout his basketball profession. He has been vocal about his need to make golf extra accessible for underrepresented minority gamers.
Smith final performed in an NBA sport on Aug. 13, 2020, for the Los Angeles Lakers.
