Miami Heat's Caleb Martin Dishes On His Relationship With Rapper J Cole

North Carolina native Caleb Martin has been a bright addition to the Miami Heat’s roster.

This season, he averaged nine points, three rebounds, and an assist while shooting 50 percent from the field and 41 percent from the three-point line.

His journey to get to where he is now wasn’t easy. After going undrafted in the 2019 draft, he signed with the Charlotte Hornets. After playing just two seasons with them (71 games), he was waived.

Rap superstar J. Cole was willing to help out a fellow North Carolina native. Cole had a good relationship with Heat assistant Caron Butler.

“J. Cole ended up having a connection with Caron here, which I didn’t know about before,” Martin said to the Miami Herald. “That was after I got waived and he just saw how tough the process was on me trying to figure out my next move and he just wanted to see if he could help and use his connect.”

Butler listened to Cole and decided to invite Martin to an open scrimmage in South Florida last summer. Martin was so impressive that he earned himself a two-way contract from the Heat.

“He was huge, man,” Martin said of Cole. “Because I think here at the time, they already had a two-way in mind before I was even a thought. I think the fact that he reached out [to Butler] — they were boys, they were cool. I think it obviously helped that I played in the league for two years. But yeah, I just think that it would have been tough to come here and put myself in front of these guys if it wasn’t for [J. Cole]. So a good amount of it was due to him, for sure.”

Martin will enter free agency this summer but will likely earn a nice contract from the Heat.

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Cory Nelson is a contributor to Inside The Heat. He attended Northern Virginia Community College. He can be reached at corymckenzienelson@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter @CKenzyNelson