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Over the years, the NBA has seen lots of players take on diverse hobbies in their spare time, including martial arts, bowling, playing musical instruments, golfing, or skating.
Some of these hobbies have spurn into something much more, an example being NBA players generating income from rapping and featuring on the Billboard charts. The Billboard chart is the most prestigious music industry standard chart in the world. The charts are published weekly by Billboard magazine, with rankings based on online streams, song sales and radio plays.
A few NBA players have made some appearances on these charts and we will be taking a look at the top three players to do so.
#3 Tony Parker
Tony Parker made an appearance on the Billboard France digital song sales chart with his rap song Premier Love featuring Rickwell, peaking at number nine on October 13th, 2007. He appeared on the chart for just one week.
The point guard played almost his entire career with the San Antonio Spurs. His final season in the NBA saw him represent the Charlotte Hornets, averaging 9.5 points, 1.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 56 games played. Other than that, he was at Spurs through and through with a career average of 15.5 points, 2.7 rebounds and 5.6 assists.
Parker was acquired by the Spurs as the 28th overall pick in the 2001 NBA Draft, making him the third French player to feature in an NBA contest. He was the first foreign-born guard to be named part of the league's All-Rookie First Team.
Parker became one of the best players on the team, winning four NBA titles with the Spurs. In 2007, he was selected as the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player. He is a six-time NBA All-Star and has also represented the French national team in several international games.
In late 2006, he got engaged to Hollywood actress Longoria on the Desperate Housewives hit show. The following year, Parker released his first single, "Top of the Game", featuring Fabulous and Booba, and was produced by Sound Scientist's Polygrafic. The music video had his Spurs teammates Tim Duncan, Brent Barry and Robert Horry make cameo appearances.
#2 Damian Lillard
Damian Lillard is known in the music world by his stage name, Dame D.O.L.L.A. He is one of the few NBA rappers who has earned a high level of respect for his music career. He is taking his music path very seriously as he has released two albums, with each project sounding better than the previous.
Dame D.O.L.L.A made his debut on Billboard's Emerging Artists chart at No. 32 on October 28th, 2017, with the release of his sophomore album, Confirmed, just ahead of the start of the 2017-18 NBA season. The album secured over 3,000 unit sales in its first week of release, placing it at No. 72 on the Billboard Album Sales chart.
The Portland Trail Blazers point guard has a career average of 24.7 points, 4.2 rebounds and 6.6 assists. He put up 28.8 points per game last season and set a record the previous season as the first Portland Trail Blazers player in NBA history to average 30 points after a round-up (actual points per game tallies at 29.96). This saw the Olympic gold medalist beat Blazer legend Clyde Drexler's record of 27.2 points per game. He is the 4th best player to record a 50-point, 10-assist game in postseason history.
#1 Shaquille O'Neal
Shaquille O'Neal is so far the most accomplished NBA Rapper, making his first debut on the Billboard charts in 1993, with his first project, "Shaq Diesel". The album peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 chart on November 20, 1993, and No. 10 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-hop Albums chart, spending two weeks on the chart. Shaq Diesel became a surprise hit attaining the RIAA platinum certification having made a million sales by March 21, 1994.
In 1994, the NBA superstar released another project titled, Shaq Fu: Da Return, which peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard 200 chart, and also peaked at No. 19 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-hop Albums chart on November 26, 1994. It spent a week on the chart. His third (You Can't Stop The Reign) and fourth (Respect) studio album peaked at No. 82 and No. 58 on the Billboard 200 chart respectively. They also peaked at No. 21 and No. 8 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-hop Albums chart in the same vein.
The eight-time All-NBA First Team player also has five songs on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock) peaked at No. 39, (I Know I Got) Skillz (No. 35), I'm Outstanding (No. 45), Biological Didn't Bother (No. 78), and Men of Steel (From "Steel") (No. 82). He also made a splash on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-hop Singles chart, with five songs peaking within the top 35 rankings.
The Lakers' center had a career average of 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds and 2.5 assists in the NBA. He ended his illustrious career at the Boston Celtics at age 38, averaging 9.2 points, 4.7 rebounds and 0.7 assists. Shaq was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1993, and he has under his belts 4 championship rings - winning three with the Lakers and one with the Miami Heat.
Guess the Lakers players!
