Jabari Smith Jr. signed a five-year, $122 million contract extension on Sunday, the NBA’s daily transactions report indicated. That was the earliest the former Auburn standout could have re-signed with the Houston Rockets and settles Smith’s NBA future with the league getting fun for the 6-foot-11 forward.

It wasn’t always that way for Smith, as he remembered his transition from Auburn to the Rockets during an appearance on last week’s “The Dawg Talk Podcast.”

Smith played one season for the Tigers. He averaged 16.9 points, 7.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.0 blocked shots in 34 games in the 2021-22 campaign. Auburn reached No. 1 in The Associated Press poll for the first time as the Tigers won 22 of their first 23 games. The season ended with a 79-61 loss to Miami (Fla.) in the NCAA tournament.

“It was the funnest year of my life, honestly,” Smith said. “It was just like I never expected to do that going there. I figured we could be good. We had a good team. But best team in the country? That’s not even in my thought process. …

“It was just a great experience honestly. And the way we was doing it. We was just so together. The team was just so close off the court. In college, like, your team is kind of who you’re with, especially at Auburn. Football players hang with the basketball players. Basketball players hang with the football players. It’s just so family-oriented down there, and it’s just like when we was going on the run and doing all that, everything was together. It was just a fun time, honestly, till we lost.”

After the Rockets added Smith with the third pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, he started a team-high 79 games as a rookie as Houston posted a 22-60 record.

“It was rough,” Smith said. “We won 22 games my first year. That was one of the longest seasons, longest years ever. You talk about losing – not winning for a whole month. Like going through that, man, but you’re really trying to win. Some people say teams tank, whatever, whatever. I’m trying to win. I’m really trying to win.

“Everybody was kind of figuring it out. It was rough. It was a rough little first year. Then the next year, we got Ime (Udoka) and started getting things going a little bit. But that first year was just rough. We was just all growing and learning.”

After Udoka took the reins as Houston’s coach, the Rockets had a 41-41 record in the 2023-24 season and went 52-30 in the 2024-25 campaign.

“Anybody who knows Ime knows Ime’s got some missing screws,” Smith said. “He’s going to coach you hard. As you see, he done made the team play hard. Everybody knows that we’re going to play hard, and that’s just who he is. …

“He helped me a lot. He obviously helped the organization a lot. Things are looking up.”

The Rockets’ most recent regular-season showing put Houston in the postseason as the West’s No. 2 seed. But the Golden State Warriors upended the Rockets in a seven-game, first-round series.

Smith is ready to get right back to the playoffs.

“It was a different feeling,” Smith said. “The playoffs is something that you can’t really describe until you get into it. That was my first time experiencing it. And like the jump and the difference of basketball really is true. Like your vets are telling you about how it’s going to be, but you can’t really get it until you get in there. You walk into the arena and like you ain’t never seen this many cameras. I’m like, ‘Damn.’ It’s like everything is lifted. The seriousness in it is, like, there. And obviously the game. Playing the Warriors, like the culture they got, going in that arena. Obviously, it ain’t Oracle, but it still was loud. It was a great experience, one I’ll never forget, obviously, because it was my first. We obviously lost, came up short. …

“I can see how you could just, like, get to — the season starts and, ‘Man, I want to get back to that.’ You got to play 82 games? But you can’t really skip over it because you really got to make it. Like the West is crazy. You got to get in there. But when you’re in there, it’s like fun. It’s fun as hell, I ain’t going to lie.”

During the 2024-25 season, Smith played in 57 regular-season games, with 39 starts. In his first two seasons, Smith had started all 155 games in which he had played. Smith started the first 33 games of the 2024-25 season until he broke a bone in his left hand at practice and did not play between Jan. 1 and Feb. 21.

During his third NBA season, Smith averaged 12.2 points, 7.0 rebounds and 1.1 assists. In his NBA career, Smith has averaged 13.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.3 assists in 212 regular-season games.

Smith has one season, at $12.3 million, remaining on his rookie deal. The extension could keep Smith with the Rockets through the 2030-31 season.

A first-round draft pick can sign an extension for as many as five years with his team after his third season. The contract can be signed between the end of the Free Agent Moratorium Period and the start of the player’s fourth season. The moratorium period ended Sunday, and Smith became the first player from the 2022 NBA Draft to sign an extension.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X at @AMarkG1.