The connection between sports and music is closer than people think and the connection has been shown in different ways. There have been many different connections between sports and music over time and certain athletes embrace this in different ways. Many athletes have decided to explore music more by deciding to create music and share it with the public and their fans. In this post, I will be discussing some of the athletes that have made music
The first athlete that I will discuss who has made music is NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal. Shaquille O’Neal had a legendary career when he was in the NBA and is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. During his NBA career, Shaq won Rookie of the Year, won two scoring titles, made it to 15 All Star Games, won 4 NBA Championships, 3 Finals MVP’s, 1 regular season MVP, made the Hall of Fame, and much more. While he had one of the best NBA careers ever, he has also been very successful outside of sports.
She has been pretty successful in his music career and has been making music for over 30 years. Shaq has officially released 5 studio albums throughout his music career, with the first album being titled “Shaq Diesel” releasing in 1993. Throughout his career, he has also released 4 other solo albums titled “Shaq Fu: Da Return” in 1994, “You Can’t Stop the Reign” in 1996, “Respect” in 1998, and “Gorilla Warfare” in 2023. He ended up seeing some success for his first and second albums, but hasn’t really seen any for the rest of his music since then.
Although he hasn’t been releasing his own music since 1998, he has been staying in the music scene in another way where he has seen more success. Shaquille O’Neal has also become a DJ and has been dj’ing in his free time. Whenever he does DJ, Shaq goes by the stage name DJ Diesel and he has performed at many different big events, some of the big events include music festivals and special events.
The next athlete that has made music that I will be discussing is current Milwaukee Bucks Point Guard Damian Lillard. Damian Lillard has also had a pretty successful career in the NBA. So far during his NBA career, Lillard has been to the All Star Game 8 times, won All Star MVP, made the All Rookie team in the 2012-13 season, and won Rookie of the Year. Although he doesn’t have a ton of accolades during his career, he has consistently been one of the best players in the NBA for awhile and has built up a borderline Hall of Fame career.
Damian Lillard really started making music in 2015 but it wasn’t until the next year where he would release his first album. Lillard (Dame D.O.L.L.A.) has released 3 albums, with his debut album titled “The Letter O” releasing in 2016. He has gone on to release 2 more albums so far in his music career with his next two albums being “Confirmed” which released in 2017, and “Big D.O.L.L.A.” released in 2019. On these albums, Lillard has collaborated with the likes of rappers Lil Wayne and Snoop Dogg. Overall, Lillard has had a somewhat successful music career so far and I believe that he will continue to have success.
Another athlete that released music during their career is Kobe Bryant. Kobe Bryant had a legendary basketball career and has been widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time. During his career, Bryant racked up on accolades and some of his achievements were 18 All Star Game selections, 2 scoring titles, one MVP, two Finals MVP’s, 5 NBA Championships, and he is a Hall of Fame. Bryant is also 4th all time on the all time scoring list for a career. While he had a legendary basketball career, his music career was short-lived.
While Kobe Bryant’s music career was short and somewhat unknown, he did have the chance to work on an album and release his own music. According to an article written by the LA Times, Bryant collaborated on a couple songs including a song with music group Destiny’s Child, and on one of his own songs he was able to collaborate with 50 Cent and Nas. He ended up previewing a song at the NBA All Star Game in 2000, but it ended up not getting positive feedback. Although he was working on his own album, he decided to not release the album and that was essentially the end to his music career.
The connection between sports and music is stronger than people believe. The connection between the two has been shown in multiple different ways like athletes making their own music in their free time. More and more athletes have been making music and I believe that it will grow into an even bigger trend in the future.
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