J. Cole grew up in the same town as Dennis Smith Jr. and, as legend has it, once tried to walk on to the basketball team at St. John’s.
The famous rapper, who graduated magna cum laude from the Queens school in 2007, was a popular attendee at Knicks practice Saturday in Tarrytown.
Smith is friendly with Cole, who is 12 years older but grew up in the same hometown of Fayetteville, N.C. The third-year guard joked with reporters that he’d be taking “no J. Cole questions,” but coach David Fizdale said the 11-time Grammy nominee was “here to support all of us” and described him as “one of my favorite rappers.