J. Cole made his professional basketball debut earlier this month in the Basketball Africa League after signing with the Rwanda Patriots and his three points, rebounds and two assists in just under 18 minutes of his first game were highly praised and reported on. However, AS Salé guard Terrell Stoglin feels the praise is unwarranted for the 36-year-old rapper and the spot should have gone to a more deserving athlete instead of what he considers a marketing ploy for the team.
“I think there’s a negative and a positive. The negative part of it is, I think he took someone’s job that deserves it. 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. 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. 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,” Stoglin told ESPN.
Stoglin is one of the star players in the BAL and recently became the first player to score 40 points in a BAL game. The former University of Maryland hoopster is BAL leading scorer with 31 points per game and has made career playing overseas in countries like France, Turkey, Poland and Venezuela.
The Patriots COO Haydee Ndayishimiye defended their decision to draft J. Cole and stated that it was based on basketball.
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