Rap superstar J. Cole signs with Toronto basketball team
The Scarborough Shooting Stars of the Canadian Elite Basketball League will have an interesting rollcall when announcing its roster this season.
Chart-topping North Carolina rapper Jermaine Lamarr Cole -- better known as J.Cole -- has signed with the expansion outfit, the league announced Thursday.
"BREAKING: @sss--cebl have signed 6'3 guard, @JColeNC. He last played professionally in @theBAL," a tweet from the CEBL read.
Cole played last season for the Rwanda-based Patriots Basketball Club in the Basketball Africa League, an NBA-run 12-team league in the African continent.
Cole averaged 1.7 points and 1.7 rebounds in a little over 15 minutes per game in three games with Patriots BBC.
He joins a Scarborough team that will be playing its inaugural season after being announced as a new CEBL expansion club last summer.
- Download our app to get local alerts to your device
- Get the latest local updates right to your inbox
The Shooting Stars are part-owned by Nicholas (Niko) Carino, one of the co-founders of famed clothing and lifestyle brand OVO (October's Very Own).
Among the staff of the Shooting Stars are Jamaal Magloire, a former NBA player and Toronto Raptors basketball development consultant and community ambassador who is the team's vice president and senior adviser, as well as Brady Heslip, a former sharpshooting Canadian national team member, who is the club's general manager.
Cole, 37, will likely have to step away from the team for much of the season.
J. Cole is having quite the weekend with not only the Friday release of his album, "The Off-Season," but also his debut in the Basketball African League. (Streeter Lecka/Getty Images via CNN)
The Shooting Stars' first game is on May 26 as they visit the Guelph Nighthawks. Their first home game is June 4 against the Hamilton Honey Badgers.
After that, there's one more game, June 7, at home versus the Newfoundland Growlers before Cole would be able to play prior to going on tour.
Cole is to begin touring on June 10 in New York. When he begins his tour, Scarborough will still have 15 more games left to play.
The CEBL is a 10-team professional basketball league in Canada that plays its season during the summer months.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 19, 2022.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
More than 115 cases of eye damage reported in Ontario after solar eclipse
More than 115 people who viewed the solar eclipse in Ontario earlier this month experienced eye damage after the event, according to eye doctors in the province.
Toxic testing standoff: Family leaves house over air quality
A Sherwood Park family says their new house is uninhabitable. The McNaughton's say they were forced to leave the house after living there for only a week because contaminants inside made it difficult to breathe.
Decoy bear used to catch man who illegally killed a grizzly, B.C. conservation officers say
A man has been handed a lengthy hunting ban and fined thousands of dollars for illegally killing a grizzly bear, B.C. conservation officers say.
B.C. seeks ban on public drug use, dialing back decriminalization
The B.C. NDP has asked the federal government to recriminalize public drug use, marking a major shift in the province's approach to addressing the deadly overdose crisis.
OPP responds to apparent video of officer supporting anti-Trudeau government protestors
The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says it's investigating an interaction between a uniformed officer and anti-Trudeau government protestors after a video circulated on social media.
An emergency slide falls off a Delta Air Lines plane, forcing pilots to return to JFK in New York
An emergency slide fell off a Delta Air Lines jetliner shortly after takeoff Friday from New York, and pilots who felt a vibration in the plane circled back to land safely at JFK Airport.
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau on navigating post-political life, co-parenting and freedom
Sophie Gregoire Trudeau says there is 'still so much love' between her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as they navigate their post-separation relationship co-parenting their three children.
Last letters of pioneering climber who died on Everest reveal dark side of mountaineering
George Mallory is renowned for being one of the first British mountaineers to attempt to scale the dizzying heights of Mount Everest during the 1920s. Nearly a century later, newly digitized letters shed light on Mallory’s hopes and fears about ascending Everest.
Loud boom in Hamilton caused by propane tank, police say
A loud explosion was heard across Hamilton on Friday after a propane tank was accidentally destroyed and detonated at a local scrap metal yard, police say.