Dreamville rapper J. Cole is taking another step to keep his basketball ambitions alive, signing a contract to play for the Nanjing Monkey Kings in the Chinese Basketball Association this season, as reported by ESPN’s Shams Charania.
Cole reportedly committed to play “a few games” for the Monkey Kings last year, and this deal marks the fulfillment of that promise.
This isn’t the rapper’s first venture into professional basketball. In 2021, he played for the Rwanda Patriots in the Basketball Africa League, followed by a stint with the Scarborough Shooting Stars in Canada’s Elite Basketball League in 2022.
A product of Fayetteville, N.C., J. Cole honed his skills at Terry Sanford High School and will now join a team composed of notable former American college players like Brady Manek (University of North Carolina), Jaylen Hands (UCLA), Richard Solomon (California), and Parker Jackson-Cartwright (Arizona).
