J. Cole leaves Chinese Basketball Association after one game, cites visa issues

Wayne Gretzky said it best: you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Unfortunately, as J. Cole learned this week, you also miss some of the shots you do take. The rapper, who signed a contract to play at least three games with the Nanjing Monkey Kings basketball team, was forced to cut his time on the court short after only eight minutes on the court due to visa issues. During his brief stint as the Monkey Kings’ shooting guard, Cole tallied zero points, one rebound, and one assist. 

The rapper explained his abrupt departure from the team on his blog, The Algorithm, on Monday. “My work visa took way longer than expected, so I was only able to play in one [game] before heading back,” Cole wrote in a post aptly titled “China!” He took his performance in stride, noting that, if he’d played more games then “maybe those shots would have started to fall! … my knees felt like I played 40 minutes!” Despite being unable to obtain a work visa, Cole seemed particularly enamored with China. “The people were kind, the cities are clean and beautiful,” he said. “It’s a very peaceful place.” He also waxed poetic about the country’s high-speed trains, calling them “crazy” and “super convenient.” 

Cole’s stint with the Monkey Kings, a professional team in the Chinese Basketball League that has seen three NBA players pass through its ranks (Antonio Blakeney, Tacko Fall, and Willie Cauley-Stein), marks his third foray into professional basketball. In 2022, the rapper played in five games for Toronto’s Scarborough Shooting Stars, and in 2021, he appeared in three games with Rwanda’s Patriots Basketball Club. Cole has long intertwined his love of basketball with his rap career, referencing the sport repeatedly in his music and writing frequently about playing the game as a kid. Last month, he told rapper Cam’Ron on the podcast Talk With Flee that he had seized the opportunity with the Monkey Kings after discussing the possibility last year. “I’m looking at the clock like, boy, I’m getting older,” Cole said. “This might be my last shot.” 

However, the rapper left the possibility of a return to the Monkey Kings open in his post this week. He assured fans, “I told the team that if I could stay in shape I would be down to play for a longer amount of games next year after I’m done with tour. I’m wildin????” Cole definitely has enough free time to make the career pivot, since he’s been marketing his most recent album, February’s The Fall-Off, as his last.

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