J. Cole has finished his contractual obligations with the Rwanda Patriots BBC of the Basketball Africa League and left Rwanda due to a “family obligation” according to ESPN. Throughout his three games with the Rwanda Patriots, Cole had 5 points, 3 assists and 5 rebounds in 45 minutes of play.
While his presence on the team drew international attention to the Basketball Africa League’s inaugural season, it also irked some of the league’s players. AS Sale guard Terrel Stoglin, who was the first in the league to score 40 points in a single game, expressed his frustration with Cole’s roster spot.
“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,” Stoglin said in an interview with ESPN. “It’s disrespectful to the ones who sacrificed their whole lives for this.”
Stoglin went on to say the rapper “took someone’s job that deserved it.” The Rwanda Patriots chief operations officer fired back calling Cole’s roster spot a “basketball decision first.”
Cole’s stint with the Rwanda Patriots wasn’t only great for bringing attention to the new league, it also helped bring attention to Cole’s new album The Off-Season.
Read ACT’s story: How J. Cole Perfectly Marketed His New Album ‘The Off-Season’