Everybody and their baby’s momma, Uncle Leroy and cousin Man-Man is talking about J. Cole getting a tryout for an NBA team. Every time I turn on the radio or television somebody is hyping this up. The Detroit Pistons even tweeted, “Hit us up for that tryout. This is for all the dreamers.”
Okay let’s stop with this foolishness. It’s utterly disrespectful to cats in the NBA like they aren’t specially made human beings. DNA gets you to the NBA and work ethic will keep you in the NBA. If J Cole wasn’t dominating boyz in North Carolina in youth league, high school or college at St. John’s where he went to school and wasn’t on the hoop team. Why do you think that he’s got the ability to just show up now in the NBA and make a team when he didn’t even play in college?
It’s even more disrespectful to all of the cats that do this for real all over the world that literally live, sleep and breath this game 24 hours a day 7 days a week with trainers and nutritionists trying to just get a workout.
There are cats not only playing professional basketball over seas but duns in the G league and in Division 1 college programs that have all of the measurables and stats but still can’t get to the league. Why? Because there are only 450 jobs in the world in the NBA and just being able to hoop doesn’t give you a ticket to a roster spot.
I’ve been covering the NBA for 10 seasons and these guys are extraterrestrials. They aren’t your normal guys that can hoop. They’ve been born differently that the rest of the world. They can do things that average humans can’t do. They’ve got DNA that very few people possess.
No disrespect to J. Cole’s game but he’s not one of them. How do I know? It’s because he’s not one of them. If he were one of them. He’d be one of them already and not a rapper. Dame Lillard can rap but he’s not a rapper. He’s a basketball player because he’s got the DNA to hoop. Rapping is his hobby. Shaq went platinum not only because he could rap but because he was already famous and he could rap. If he were Shaquille O’Neal from San Antonio, Texas that nobody ever heard of he wouldn’t have gone platinum. The only reason J. Cole is getting a look from Detroit is because he’s J. Cole the famous rapper.
They always say, the first million is the hardest to make. After that it’s easy. When you’re already famous you can sell anything.
J. Cole is one of the best rappers in the business and it ain’t even close. He’s Top 2 in the rap game right now, in my opinion, behind the GOAT Jay-Z. He’s one of the best to lace a track right now.
He can hoop but he’s not a basketball player. If he were a hooper he would have played on scholarship at St. John’s where he graduated from with a 3.8 GPA. He’s a genius that graduated magna cum laude in 2007 that has an extraordinary gift musically but he wasn’t on the hoop team. Why? Because he’s not a basketball player. He’s a rapper that can hoop.
Just because you can hoop doesn’t mean you’re ready for the NBA. There are cats that can go but aren’t good enough to play at the highest level. THE NBA IS THE HIGHEST LEVEL. Boyz in the NBA are there for a reason. They’ve got DNA that the rest of the world doesn’t have.
That’s like some cat walking off of the street thinking he should be given the opportunity to share the stage with J. Cole on his WORLD tour when he’s put absolutely no work in. Sure, he raps with the fellas in the evenings and on the weekends and he’s damn good at it but he’s not a professional at the highest level.
That’s what J.Cole is trying to do and it’s crazy that Detroit is playing this silly game tweeting about giving him a shot. They know he’s not what they’re looking for but they’re using him for additional relevance this offseason. He’s famous and everybody’s watching and saying their name. Stop with this foolishness and stop me when I start lyin’.
