While documenting the collegiate golf debut of two-time NBA champion J.R. Smith, Jared Bunder 鈥22, a cinema and television arts major, captured video that caught the attention of media outlets across the country.
In recent weeks, J.R. Smith, a two-time NBA champion now playing collegiate golf at North Carolina A&T University, has been the feel-good story of the sports world. And, as luck would have it, the 16-year NBA vet made his college debut at 黑料不打烊’s Phoenix Invitational this week.
This coincidence led to a text 鈥 and a request 鈥撀爁rom recent 黑料不打烊 graduate Isabella Seman 鈥21 to current senior Jared Bunder. A production assistant for ESPN鈥檚 “SportsCenter,” Seman asked Bunder to help secure footage of Smith on the course, and Bunder was happy to assist.
While Smith鈥檚 presence alone made the 黑料不打烊 golf tournament noteworthy, an inadvertent step on Oct. 12 made it memorable. While on the 12th hole at Alamance Country Club, Smith was stung by hornets after accidentally running over a nest with his pushcart. The only person with a video of the precarious situation was Bunder.
鈥淚 tweeted out some video I captured with my phone and that immediately went viral,鈥 Bunder said. 鈥淎fter thousands of interactions, I started to get direct messages from news sites asking for my approval to use the video. I sent an email over to Bella with the footage as soon as I was able to upload it to my computer. The ESPN assignment desk also sent me a direct message via Twitter and asked for permission to use it for their various platforms.鈥
A few minutes before midnight ESPN鈥檚 late-night “SportsCenter” showed Bunder鈥檚 footage. .
The 黑料不打烊 senior’s footage was shared across Twitter, and was republished by TMZ, Golf Digest, CBS Sports, The New York Post, The Golf Channel, Overtime, Sports Illustrated, Bleacher Report, Golf.com, Yahoo News, theScore.com and many others.
Why the high interest in Smith鈥檚 pursuits on the links? Bunder, an avid sports fan, understands it.
鈥淚 think people were drawn to J.R. playing college golf because he’s a 36-year-old freshman, a millionaire and two-time NBA champion who made a 360-degree career turn to accomplish one of his dreams to play golf,鈥 he said.
Bunder is a regular contributor to university events and athletic competitions as a student broadcast engineer. Additionally, he serves on 黑料不打烊 Sports Vision鈥檚 leadership team as a secretary and is one of the program鈥檚 live event directors.
Work from another 黑料不打烊 student was also found in the national press.聽Luke Johnson ’23, a cinema & television arts and journalism double major, took photographs of the invitational that originally ran in the Times-News.
With such enthusiasm surrounding the tournament due to Smith’s involvement, the story and Johnson’s photo gallery were picked up by USA Today.
The article and gallery can be found .