By Bernard "Beanz" Smalls
, Staff Writer
Meet Bernard Smalls, better known as Beanz. He is the Men's Lifestyle & Pop Culture writer for Cassius Life plus handles tech and video games for Hip-Hop Wired. Beanz has been with the company since 2019 and has been working as a writer for eight years. His favorite hobbies include video games, of course, and watching a lot of movies, mainly sci-fi. He also moonlights as a photographer in his spare time.

Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
Oh, word? Looks like Jermaine Cole’s alleged hoop dreams of balling professionally in the NBA might come true.
The Detroit Pistons have seemingly stepped up and extended an NBA tryout invite to J. Cole to make their squad. In a quoted retweet of a Bleacher Report post featuring a video cole shooting in the gym, the Pistons shot their shot at cole while featuring a photo of the team’s jersey with Cole’s name on the back stating:
“.@JColeNC we see you out here. You said they only got 12 slots on the Pistons. Hit us up for that tryout. This is for all the dreamers @bleacherreport #Dreamville.”
The Piston’s offer follows Master P sharing with TMZ exclusively that Cole was considering putting down the microphone and picking up a basketball. P, born, Percy Miller, knows all about making the transition from Hip-Hop to the league signing, not one, but two NBA contracts in the late ’90s shared what he told the “Power Trip” crafter.
“When I talked to J. Cole, he was like ‘You know, big dog you did it. What do you think I would have to do to make it happen?’”
“I said to get one of these NBA jerseys, it’s not gonna be easy. It’s gonna be a lot of hate, it’s gonna be a lot of people not believing in you, but you know J. Cole — he got the right size, he in the gym!”
“But, what I told him … this a different time we’re in. They’re going to pick you apart! You’re gonna have to be able to hit every shot, and if you don’t hit every shot, they — you know in the NBA, they don’t hit every shot, but they believe in them. So, you’re gonna have to go somewhere where the team really believe in you, and the players believe in you.”“They’ve been putting their whole life into this. So, you’re gonna have to prove you’re worthy of being on that court.”
It would be quite intriguing to see Cole lace up his PUMA RS-Dreamers on a professional NBA court and try to run with the pros.
Photo: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz