The 37-year-old rapper, who played high school basketball in North Carolina, is not new to playing professional basketball. He ripped the courts playing with the Rwanda Patriots in the Basketball Africa League (BAL) in 2021.

J. Cole the professional basketball player. 🏀 #ColeWorld pic.twitter.com/0CPXunoMnZ

— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) May 16, 2021

BAL star Terrell Stoglin, labeled as the league’s leading scorer, was not too welcoming of Cole’s participation in last year’s tournament.

“I think there’s a negative and a positive [to J. Cole’s presence]. The negative part of it is: I think he took someone’s job that deserves it,” Stoglin told ESPN. “I live in a basketball world. I don’t live in a fan world. I know a lot of guys that had their careers stopped by COVID and they’re still home working out and training for an opportunity like this.”

“For a guy who has so much money and has another career to just come here and average, like, one point a game and still get glorified is very disrespectful to the game. It’s disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this,” he added. “The positive side of it is: It brings a lot of attention, and, I guess, money. I don’t really pay attention to that type of stuff. I’m more [concerned that] he took someone’s job that deserved it.”

Scarborough-Shooting-Stars

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week