Former Wildcat Ray Smith appears on the Dubs Only Podcast

With a career that didn’t quite pan out in basketball, former Wildcat Ray Smith talks about his story and purpose beyond the sport on the Dubs Only Podcast.

Renowned author Roy T. Bennett once said “Your hardest times will often lead to your greatest moments in life.” For former Wildcat Ray Smith, that couldn’t be any truer as the former basketball star spoke at length on the Dubs Only Podcast earlier this week.

For those that don’t know, the Dubs Only Podcast is a newly founded podcast, started by two former Arizona alums (Noah Winfree and Nevin Whitehead) who love talking sports, in particular, Arizona Athletics.

Arizona Wildcats

What started as an interest in talking sports, the two have turned their passion into great content. As both Noah and Nevin look to expand their capabilities and followers, already the two have done big things by having guests like; Arizona Basketball walk-on Kory Jones, and most recently Ray Smith.

Well, earlier this week Noah and Nevin were able to conduct that interview with former Basketball star Ray, and overall it was a great conversation worth mentioning.

In roughly a 17-minute interview, Smith talked at length about everything from; his journey in coming to Arizona, why he chose the Cats, the injuries he battled in basketball, the emerging G-League, Arizona Basketball and more!

However, as you may recall, the journey was quite a strange one for Ray, especially as he tells his story.

Now a graduate of Arizona, Ray has battled and overcome a lot adversity thus far. A once, highly-touted five-star basketball recruit from Las Vegas with multiple offers, the sky was certainly the limit for Ray.

Coming out of high school, he had potential, future NBA Prospects and his choice of coming to Arizona made sense at the time. Despite receiving a pro offer in Australia as he notes in the interview, Ray talked about how playing close to his dad was ultimately a big factor in his decision.

Then ranked as a Top 20 recruit (according to 247Sports) and with a bright future, life showed that it can have a funny (and in Ray’s case a rather cruel) way in surprising you.

With such a promising basketball career, unfortunately things wouldn’t quite work out in his favor as his career was cut short due to injuries. In his time in Tucson, Ray suffered multiple ACL injuries that sidelined him for good, ultimately forcing him to walk away from the game he loved.

So just a year after arriving on campus, the former star decided to call it quits, and for him it was a tough time and decision, especially as some athletes seemingly never are able to recover (mostly mental) in overcoming such adversity.

For Ray, basketball was a big part of his identity, and him not being able to play or being able to do simple tasks for himself without crutches was difficult to deal with at times. For Ray, he said there were certainly “good days and bad days”.

But Ray is unlike many others. He’s truly an amazing person that has been resilient! Since then, he’s luckily been able to overcome the adversity and is making perhaps an even bigger impact in life, especially off the court!

Already, Ray has graduated from the University of Arizona, earning his Bachelors (something he says his grandmother and father weren’t able to do).

https://twitter.com/raysmith2297/status/1205646834321899520?s=20

And more importantly, the Las Vegas native is now back in his hometown, and is having a positive impact on his community.

Volunteering heavily for his church, Ray is making connections with the local youth and is making sure to give back in every capacity that he can. Whether it’s volunteering in helping provide meals to the hungry, or giving shoes to less fortunate kids, Ray truly inspires.

Day-in and day-out he is showing that his importance and impact goes beyond just basketball, and he has a story worth sharing, hopefully that helps in inspiring others. So thank you to Noah and Nevin for helping to provide that platform for him, because we could surely use more people like that!

We encourage everyone reading to go subscribe to the ‘Dubs Only Podcast’, and certainly give this Episode in particular a listen -> here! You can find these guys on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

At Zona Zealots, we would like to thank Ray, and the guys at Dubs Only Podcast in reaching out to us! As always, Bear Down, Arizona!