J. Cole Makes His Professional Basketball Debut in the Basketball Africa League

Literally two days after J. Cole set Hip-Hop Twitter on fire with his masterful bars like “Could put a M right on your head, you Luigi brother now,” featured on his latest project The Off-Season, the North Carolina rapper could be found sitting courtside at the first game of the Basketball Africa League. Now you may be thinking to yourself, “this isn’t news celebrities sit courtside at basketball games all the time,” but you didn’t let me finish. J. Cole, yes Jermaine Cole, recently signed with the Patriots Basketball Club of Rwanda, so for all intents and purposes, Cole is now a professional basketball player.

Jermaine Cole would see the floor during his team’s first game in the BAL against the Rivers Hoopers Basketball Club where he logged 3 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists in the 18 minutes he played. Most impressively, Cole was able to clean up a teammate’s missed layup on a fast break with a rebound and putback layup himself.

J. Cole’s professional basketball career should come as a surprise to no one, with the rapper being a frequent attendee of basketball games, most notably 2019’s NBA All-Star Weekend where Cole was used as a prop for NBA player Dennis Smith Jr. to jump over during the dunk contest. Additionally, J. Cole performed during halftime of the NBA All-Star Game the next night. With projects titled The Warm Up, Friday Night Lights, The Sideline Story, and now The Off-Season, it’s nice to see J. Cole get the opportunity to realize his dream of playing professional basketball.