J. Cole isn’t just a rapper. How his eye for talent helped ex-Hornet Caleb Martin land in Miami
Dumbbells are in each hand as Caleb Martin limbers up and stretches in the Spectrum Center’s inner bowels, loosening muscles prior to getting some pregame work in.
This happens moments after the guy who looks identical to the Miami Heat swingman was out in that very same vicinity, standing roughly a full-court pass away. Cody Martin wasn’t suiting up, either, so the pregame routine for the Charlotte Hornets forward had him mostly stationed near the locker room in rehabilitation mode.
That scene was quite different from how things went down some 12 days prior, when the two played against each other for the first time at the pro level. Still, although neither suited up in the Hornets’ wild 111-107 double-overtime loss to the Heat on Friday, that snapshot might not have been possible if it wasn’t for the initiative of someone with an apparent eye for basketball talent.
But this person isn’t a sports agent and doesn’t typically broker deals that eventually lead to a friend reviving his basketball career. Instead, the guy who can be credited with one of the season’s key assists boasts a catalog that features double-digit Grammy nominations.
J. Cole.
North Carolina’s own. The pride of Fayetteville. Multi-platinum selling, J. Cole. The guy who graced the 2019 All-Star Game in Charlotte with a halftime performance sporting a teal throwback Hornets Starter jacket. He had a huge hand in ushering Caleb Martin to Miami, where the ex-Hornet has blossomed with the Heat to the tune of averaging 9.5 points and four rebounds in 44 games.
“Yeah, that’s my man,” Caleb Martin told The Observer. “It shows that even though he’s accomplished a lot of things ... and he’s got so many other things to worry about, he worries about his people. And it’s dope he considers me one of his people, that he takes into account and he knew my situation. He saw me working in the gym every day and you could just tell he appreciates guys who grinds like he does and so that’s a blessing for him to lend a hand out there and do what he could.”
Consider it nothing out of the ordinary.
“Cole, what you see is what you get,” Cody Martin said. “He’s a genuine dude. He doesn’t care about all the extra stuff. He has a lot of courtesy for guys and just making sure that he treats people how you want to be treated. I know that sounds corny, but that’s just the kind of dude he is. He looks out for his people and his family. And he makes sure if he can have a hand in helping out regardless of the situation. That’s the kind of person he is.”
To comprehend Caleb Martin’s circuitous journey, which was punctuated earlier in the week with the Heat converting his two-way deal to a standard contract for the remainder of the season, a flashback to August is a necessity. The Hornets released him following two seasons in Charlotte, a decision that was spurred by signing free agent Kelly Oubre Jr.
Caleb wasn’t sure what to do next.
“Once he didn’t get picked up off waivers, I think it put Caleb in a place,” said Omar Khanani, a personal trainer for the Martin twins who also works closely with J. Cole. “It kind of humbled him I guess. The only thing you can do is work. And when you go through that situation, you see how many good players didn’t have jobs, and you say, ‘OK, I’m not the only one.’ ”
So he worked.
J. Cole has a private gym in North Carolina that players he’s friendly with have access to, which leads to intense pickup games featuring some of the best basketball talent that’s emerged out of the state. Among those practicing there this offseason was Cody Martin.
When J. Cole, whose real name is Jermaine Cole, returned to the gym after suiting up for Rwanda-based Patriots Basketball Club in NBA Africa, he saw Caleb Martin playing alongside his brother.
Caleb, Khanani recalls, was dunking on guys. He knocked down 3-pointers and game-winners. His skillset left an impression on J. Cole and drew his intrigue.
“He was impressed and he was like, ‘Yo what’s the situation?’ ” said Khanani, who’s been offered assistant coaching jobs in the NBA but said he’s has resisted because of his loyalty to assisting the Martin twins and others like Indiana’s T.J. Warren. “Cody had a deal and Cole was like, ‘How does this guy not have a deal? He’s killing me, everybody.’ Cole holds his own against guys and Caleb was giving him fits. You’ve got a gym full of pros and he’s standing out. ‘So how does this guy not have a job?’ ”
NBA teams were showing sporadic interest. Some were offering two-way contracts. Others had training camp deals or told Caleb they could potentially bring him on board later in the season
J. Cole went to work. He opened his contact list and let his fingers do the walking until he reached “Butler, Caron,” a longtime friend and former NBA player who’s now an assistant coach with the Miami Heat.
The rapper couldn’t stop talking to him about Caleb.
Butler told Cole where Caleb Martin was on their free-agent board, Khanani said, “and Cole was like, ‘Nah, wherever he is for you, you need to take another harder look.”
“He had reached out to me and told me he had a very, very talented guy that was just wrecking shop up here in North Carolina and he had just got released from the Hornets,” Butler told The Observer. “Obviously, we were still trying to improve on our talent. He reached out to me and I just invited him to an open scrimmage in the summer and from that point on he really earned his way on. But J. Cole having the foresight in knowing Caleb can come and help a contending team was just amazing.”
Caleb Martin played well in a scrimmage with some of the Heat’s top talent and got invited back for an individual session in front of team brass a day later, solidifying his status with another solid showing. But J. Cole and Khanani hadn’t heard from Martin after the tryout’s conclusion and they were dying for the inside scoop on how it all went down.
Khanani FaceTimed Martin, who answered while strolling in the South Florida sunshine, trying to find his bearings in a new city, but was unwilling to expand on his performance.
“Cole is like, ‘No, no, no, I need to hear the details,” Khanani said. “And he kind of pressed him. Caleb is like, ’Well, I’m walking back.’ He was like, ‘Nah, nah, nah. I need to hear everything right now. (Caleb) was carrying his shoes in his hands. He was trying to figure out where he’s going. And he just starts telling us the details about how he hit a couple of game-winners. He was playing defense really well, and he was playing against guys on the team and he really held his own.”
J. Cole was correct in his assessment of Caleb Martin’s basketball talent. A rapper doubling as an agent and concocting a path for a prospective client isn’t something that happens every day. J. Cole, though, is in a class by himself. Once Martin’s agent, Eric Fleisher, reached out to the Heat to initially gauge interest, the two joined forces to get him to Miami. And Martin got offered a two-way deal in part because of the persistence and uncanny perspective of the musician.
“He has a great eye for talent, but I think he just sees the grind and the drive in people,” Butler said. “He knows that someone like Caleb was going to go out there and play extremely hard, play with a lot of grit and a lot of passion. ‘O’ did a great job of working him, training him. Some of our philosophies that we teach, he did a great job of echoing our voice and making sure that he’s up to speed because he’s been working with him for so long. Between him and Cole and all those guys, it’s been a remarkable partnership.”
Similar to that of the Martin twins. They’ve broken through the stigma that suggested they were some kind of gimmick, who could only succeed together like they did at Davie County, N.C. State, Nevada and the Hornets. But now they’re thriving on their own — Cody Martin led the league in 3-point percentage earlier this season — in different cities and silencing the doubters.
“Obviously, that’s what we always want to do,” Caleb Martin said. “We don’t really play to prove people wrong, but obviously it’s nice to do it within the process. Being twins, that’s part of what comes along with it.
“... So to show people that we can hoop and we bring intangibles that teams need and that teams admire, we take pride in doing stuff that nobody wants to do on top of having game. Being able to shoot the ball, being able to drive. Whatever it is. Just bringing that versatility to a team. So it’s just nice to see that a team sees that and values that and appreciates it. And we are just going to continue and continue to grow and build off that.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 10:57 AM.
