Review: Former Cleveland Cavs guard J.R. Smith redefines himself in Amazon series

After the lights flicker off and the roar of the crowd fade, professional athletes – as a group – don’t often get to walk a different path.

Some will always be the star player to sports fans, many of whom don’t look beyond the arena of competition to look at an individual. Some athletes create and nurture such an image. Others like former Cleveland Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith decide to travel outside their comfort zone.

In “Redefined: JR Smith,” which starts streaming on Amazon Prime Tuesday, Smith, a pivotal member of the Cavs’ 2016 NBA Championship team, takes charge of his image and turns the perception of him and former athletes on its head.

The sharpshooter generated a lot of laughs during the Cavs victory parade by not donning a shirt for any portion of a day that turned out to be sweltering. It proved a wise move that generated its share of laughs that day and beyond.

It seemed fitting that the first shot of this four-part documentary features a shirtless Smith. Same guy, right? Wrong.

It’s as if docuseries director Philip Knowlton wanted to challenge that perception. Even Smith says at one point in the proceedings that he could have been happy as a rich, dumb jock.

But an evolution in his thinking has clearly taken place after having decided to attend college at North Carolina A&T, a historically black college-university. Former baller Ray Allen inspired Smith, a high school graduate, to go back to school and get his education and, while there, play golf competitively.

The series serves as a journey through Smith’s post-NBA career (he’s not played since the 2019-20 season) and completely strips away the gloss of sports celebrity and wealth to simply reveal a college freshman who happens to be older. He guides his younger teammates while picking their brains about how to navigate college life. The commonality: competitive golf, a sport Smith was known for playing around Northeast Ohio courses.

NBA fans – Cavs fans in particular – are very aware of Smith’s depth of emotion given the memorable, tearful tribute he paid his father after winning the championship in 2016. What’s presented here: a man who seemingly understands there’s much more to life and this world and he has a responsibility to his himself and family to find it.

The actual golf is secondary to studying Smith’s transition to college life and it proves inspiring to watch as he celebrates scoring a 4.0 grade point average in his first semester as much as he would a game-winning shot.

Knowlton brings balance to this series, in which LeBron James and Maverick Carter serve as two of a team of producers. In doing so, the director gives Smith’s journey its proper due, but tells the story of his teammates as well.

With just four half-hour episodes “Redefined: J.R. Smith,” is certainly worth investing the time to watch.

George M. Thomas dabbles in movies and television for the Beacon Journal.

Review

Show: “Redefined: J.R. Smith”

Streaming: Amazon Prime Video

Directed by: Philip Knowlton

Running time: four approximately 30-minute episodes

Rated: None but there is some harsh language

Grade: B+

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Review: Evolution of ex Cleveland Cavs guard J.R. Smith worth a look