J. Cole follows basketball pipe dreams to Rwanda for African pro league

They say all rappers want to be hoopers, and all hoopers want to be rappers.

I guess this man Jermaine Cole is no different.

It was reported by Rwanda’s New Times that the superstar artist is officially competing for a roster spot for a club team in the new Basketball Africa League. The report was confirmed by Shams and ESPN’s Marc Spears.

Cole is set to suit up for 3 to 6 games for the Patriots club, based in Kigali, Rwanda’s capital. We could see the platinum artist on the court as early as Sunday against Nigeria.

J.Cole is no stranger to the basketball court. He’s worked out with famous basketball trainer Chris Brickley and he’s played in multiple celebrity/charity games. He has a little bit of game on him. He was a serviceable player in high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was close to becoming a walk-on at St. John’s during his time in college.

Yet there’s likely no way he’ll be able to compete with some of the best players in the world during his stint with the Patriots. Honestly, this is probably more of a PR move for the new Basketball Africa League to create some buzz and exposure for their brand.

And I’m not even mad at it.

The Basketball Africa League is the NBA’s first collaboration to run a league outside of North America. It’s really an innovative idea from the league to expand the game into African countries and grow the sport.. There will be 12 teams in the league from countries such as Algeria, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, and Tunisia. There is certainly an appetite for basketball on the continent and we have already seen so many division one college players traveling from Africa to play ball on the highest level. A few of them have even made it to the NBA, such as Pascal Siakam and Joel Embiid.

The inaugural season of the Basketball Africa League tips off on May 16.