Nick Young was on SportsNation on Friday, and he was blindsided with a challenge he probably never saw coming.
The show played a game in which Swaggy P had to listen to rap lyrics and then guess whether the lyrics were from songs by either his fiancee, Iggy Azalea, or Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant.
It didn't go well. It did, however, make for decent television.
Kobe, as you probably don't remember, attempted to have a music career back in the days when he had hair.
Despite a self-titled album graced with the Midas touch of a Tyra Banks cameo, it failed. Kobe's music career failed. He was forced to pour all of his egomania in basketball, which worked out pretty well for him.
Fortunately for all of us, the NBA's history with forays into rap is remarkably long -- and troubled. Recent albums by guys like Lance Stephenson and Metta World Peace are well past the heyday for rap artistry that Kobe was a part of.
In fact, the greatest example of the NBA-rap crossover came in 1994, when an album called "B-Ball's Best-Kept Secret" hit the world. The album features 16 tracks, most of them involving NBA players including Shaquille O'Neal, Cedric Ceballos, Gary Payton, Brian Shaw, Dana Barros, and the incomparable Jason Kidd.
In fact, Kidd's song is so terribad that it warrants inclusion, so you can enjoy the full song below.
Bear in mind, this is a real song rapped by Jason Kidd, and without a shread of irony:
Did you catch that? Jason Kidd actually said the sentence, "I was good on the dribble like an infant."
The 90s were the best.
