J. Cole has ended his stint with the Basketball Africa League’s Rwanda Patriots after just three games.
According to the BBC, Cole will be leaving Rwanda “almost immediately.” The Dreamville rapper scored five points and provided three assists and five rebounds. He played a total of 45 minutes across three games.
A source also spoke to ESPN, who told the publication that Cole was leaving Rwanda due to a “family obligation.” They did not offer any
The news comes days after Cole received criticism from another BAL player.
“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,” Morocco AS Sale guard Terrell Stoglin.
“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.”
Stoglin did acknowledge that there were some benefits to having Cole in the league.
“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.”
The 12-team Basketball Africa League tipped off in Kigali, Rwanda, on May 16. the championship game is slated to take place on May 30. The Patriots will be playing against Mozambique’s Ferroviario de Maputo in the upcoming quarterfinals.
His basketball dreams may be on pause for now, but things couldn’t be better for Cole on the music front.
Cole’s new album “The Off-Season” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard album charts with 37,000 sold in the U.S., marking his sixth number top-charting album.
