The ’80s had seen the pop culture ascendency of figures like Jordan, Magic and Larry Bird, transcendent stars who became standard-bearers for American sports and contemporary pop mythology. And when Michael Jordan hit the game winner over the Cleveland Cavaliers to send his Bulls to the second round of the 1989 NBA playoffs, he credited his favorite song for motivation: “Giving You the Best That I Got” by Anita Baker.Įven as rappers started selling big records and Hip-Hop had become more visible, it was still a stretch to say the biggest names in the NBA were Hip-Hop heads, really.īy the early 1990s, the league was enjoying tremendous popularity. But when Magic Johnson’s Lakers lost to the Boston Celtics in 1984, Magic consoled himself in the locker room with James Ingram songs. Kurtis Blow name-dropped a cavalcade of NBA stars on his 1984 single “Basketball,” a tune that would go on to be featured in countless NBA highlight reels and advertisements in the years following its release.Ī few years later the Chicago Bulls dropped a forgettable and regrettable “Super Bowl Shuffle”-style novelty rap song after they beat the Los Angeles Lakers to claim the 1991 NBA title. Hip-Hop hit the NBA around the same time it hit most of mainstream pop culture.

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