J. Cole is pursuing his hoops dreams once again.
The rapper, fresh off his album release in February, just signed to the Chinese Basketball Association team, the Nanjing Monkey Kings.
“The basketball s–t is like me just trying to scratch a last itch of, let me see if I can do this,” he said on the “Talk With Flee” show with Cam’ron. According to Cole, the Monkey Kings had been asking him to play for them since last year.
He continued, “I’m looking at the clock like, I’m getting older, like this might be my last shot. So I’mma keep my word to them and show up and play a couple games.”
ESPN confirmed the news on Wednesday (April 1) that the rapper was indeed coming back to the court.
J. Cole, whose full name is Jermaine Cole, began his professional career in 2021 playing with the Rwanda Patriots in the Africa Basketball League, and in 2022, he played for the Scarborough Shooting Stars in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. Before then, the last time he played basketball was in his Fayetteville, North Carolina, high school. Also an avid fan of the sport, Cole is a minority owner of the Charlotte Hornets.
Cole told Cam’ron he knew he was never the best basketball player, but he never stopped loving the sport and trying to find ways to play.
“Although I had love and passion for basketball, I always felt like, ‘Yo I left a lot on the table because I ain’t have direction.’ I ain’t have nobody around to be like, n—a you ain’t even good… But I always kept that love and that dream,” he said. “And what that dream did was it allowed me to get better over time.”
The 41-year-old artist announced he was in China on Wednesday by posting to the Chinese social media app Douyin.
“I’m excited to be in the vicinity,” he said.
J. Cole will also be going on tour later this year, following the release of his album, “The Fall-Off,” kicking off in Charlotte, North Carolina in July.
