ESPN (and Everyone Else) is Really Into J. Cole's Music and Basketball Careers Right Now

Rapper J. Cole made his professional basketball debut on Sunday playing for the Rwanda Patriots Basketball Club in the Basketball Africa League. The game was picked up by ESPN+, which in itself is notable, but over the last few days ESPN - and everyone else - has been really into J. Cole. He released the album late Thursday night. Both ESPN and SportsCenter Twitter accounts tweeted about it that night.

By the morning they another tweet ready to go with a roundup of players tweeting about the album as well as written an article about it.

By mid-day ESPN's senior basketball writer Marc Spears was passing along the Rwanda Patriots roster for the game.

On Sunday morning they broadcasted the game and shared highlights.

Of course, ESPN is not alone. Puma gave him a signature shoe. He's on the cover of SLAM. Any and all sports related accounts are sharing the video of his first basket. Even this very site is using ESPN's coverage of J. Cole as a trojan horse to get inside the Google results for J. Cole. Man, this would be a great place to put a lyric from his new album.

UPDATE: Jermaine Cole had three points, three rebounds and two assists.