J. Cole is training for the NBA.
The 35-year-old star recently joined forces with Master P for a Puma commercial, where it is hinted that J is in training for a National Basketball Association tryout and veteran rapper Master P claims J is serious about basketball.
Master P – who signed two separate NBA contracts in the late 1990s, playing for both the Charlotte Hornets and Toronto Raptors – told TMZ Sports: "When I talked to J. Cole, he was like ‘You know, big dog you did it. What do you think I would have to do to make it happen?’
"I said to get one of these NBA jerseys, it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be a lot of hate, it’s gonna be a lot of people not believing in you but you know J. Cole – he got the right size, he in the gym!
"But, what I told him … this a different time we’re in. They’re going to pick you apart! You’re gonna have to be able to hit every shot and if you don’t hit every shot, they – you know in the NBA, they don’t hit every shot but they believe in them. So, you’re gonna have to go somewhere where the team really believe in you and the players believe in you."
And he warned Cole that it would not be easy.
He said: "They’ve been putting their whole life into this. So, you’re gonna have to prove you’re worthy of being on that court."
J. Cole was a gifted basketball player in high school but ultimately decided to focus on music in college.
The notoriously private rapper has been married to Melissa Heholt since 2015 and revealed in a recent personal essay for The Players’ Tribune that the couple have two sons together.