How Celtics’ Kristaps Porzingis Felt About Shoutout From J. Cole

J. Cole dominated headlines this week when he called out Kendrick Lamar in a diss track in his latest “Might Delete Later’ album, but he also made waves with Boston Celtics fans.

Those who listened to “Huntin’ Wabbitz” heard the 39-year-old rapper give a shoutout to Kristaps Porzingis in the opening verse. Here’s the line from the song:

I don’t wanna show love, I don’t wanna give dap, I just wanna kick back, take trips, make hits, make big chips stack ’til they tall as Kristaps.

J. Cole is well-connected in the NBA community, famously playing a part in getting Caleb Martin signed to the Miami Heat. It didn’t take long for Porzingis to hear about the shoutout from J. Cole.

“To be honest, as soon as I woke up, like a lot of messages and the people were like he shouted you out and stuff so it’s pretty cool,” Porzingis told reporters, per CLNS.

The 28-year-old still was in a basketball mindset and didn’t elaborate further.

It was an eventful Friday night for Porzingis when he didn’t check into the start of the third quarter due to not getting his shoes tied on time. He scored 20 points and grabbed 11 rebounds in 24 minutes as head coach Joe Mazzulla stuck with the second unit to close out the game even after the Sacramento Kings came back from a 19-point deficit. Xavier Tillman was the hero of the night hitting a game-winner to help Boston win 101-100 at TD Garden.

The Celtics have five games left in the regular season after Friday’s win, and if they match up against the Heat in the postseason, fans likely could hear more from J. Cole during that series.