Basketball Africa League

After playing a few games with the Rwanda Patriots of the Basketball Africa League (BAL), J. Cole has left the team and returned home. While he didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his on-court contributions, he got to play basketball on a professional level, which is more than most lovers of the game can say. Now that Cole is back home, he has taken some time to reflect on the experience.

In an Instagram post from last night, Cole wrote:

“So many thank you’s are due. Thank you to @thebal and to @patriotsbbc for the opportunity. Thank you to my teammates, the coaches and staff for treating me like family. I learned so much in the few weeks we were together. Congrats on that win tonight and good luck next game. Thank you to @puma for supporting a dream from day 1, and getting me to Rwanda and back safely via Puma jet.

Thank you to the entire country of Rwanda and to the city of Kigali for hosting us. BEAUTIFUL land with BEAUTIFUL people. To anyone considering visiting or moving to the continent, from everything I saw and heard, I would recommend you consider Kigali and Rwanda in general. Thank you to everybody that had kind words for me despite my inexperience. I plan to get better.”

He also wrote a bit more about his basketball experience in another post about his new Puma RS Dreamer sneaker, saying, “The first drop will have a special place in my heart forever, for obvious reasons. These are the ones I took the scariest leap in. That nervous feeling I had playing under the whistle for the first time is the same feeling I had moving to New York without knowing anybody there. I say all that to say, Despite the fear we have to choose to jump, or be forced to live with regret.”

Check out Cole’s posts below.

J. Cole — who got to live his dream of professionally playing basketball, if only for a little while — has reportedly completed the terms of his contract with the BAL’s Rwanda Patriots, according to ESPN’s Marc Spears, who reported the news on Twitter. “Source confirms rapper J. Cole of the Rwanda Patriots BBC has completed his contractual obligation to the Basketball Africa League and has departed from Rwanda due to a ‘family obligation,’” he wrote. “J. Cole had five points, three assists, and five rebounds in three games.”

It was Spears who initially announced the surprise signing ahead of the release of Cole’s new album The Off-Season, revealing that the rapper had agreed to a contract for three-to-six games in the newly formed international league. Cole’s manager and business partner Ib Hamad later noted that the timing was purely coincidental due to both the album release and the start of the Basketball Africa League being pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic. Cole’s contract was likely scheduled to last at least the duration of the group stage play, with the additional three games taking place during the tournament contingent on his performance.

Not everyone appreciated having the rap star around, however. Terrell Stoglin, the leading scorer for Morocco’s AS Salé, called Cole’s opportunity “disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this” and felt “he took someone’s job that deserves it.” Although Rick Ross came to Cole’s defense, it appears to be a moot point now; Cole’s basketball career is, for the moment, over.