The 13 best athlete cameos in music videos, ranked
Happy Throwback Thursday, everyone.
To celebrate, we decided to open the MTV vaults and find the all-time best athlete cameos in music videos. This is mostly because someone mentioned Hootie and the Blowfish to me recently and I remembered Only Wanna Be With You might be the sporstiest music video ever (seriously!).
Find out where those cameos - Dan Marino! Alonzo Mourning! - land on this list, along with some other legendary athletes (WARNING: Some of these videos might be NSFW):
13. Julius Peppers - Hot in Herre, Nelly
My Chicago-based colleague Maggie Hendricks requested I include the defensive end's appearance. Did you also know T.J. Duckett - remember him? - is there too?
12. Chad Johnson - Everything to Me, Monica
Looks like he's got some acting chops!
11. Various athletes - Rockstar, Nickelback
We know how some people feel about Nickelback, but the Chuck Liddell cameo is pretty good. Nice to see Wayne Gretzky and Dale Earnhardt Jr., too.
10. Marshawn Lynch - Marmalade, Macklemore and Lil Yachty
He trolled Tom Brady in Macklemore's recent video, so that's worth a spot on this list.
9. LeBron James - D.O.A. (Death of Autotune), Jay-Z
C'mon, he could have played better D.
8. Robinson Cano, Jose Reyes and Melky Cabrera - Pa La Tumba, Hector El Father
They look like they're having fun.
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick - Show Me What You Got, Jay-Z
Love that intro. Earnhardt's been in a bunch of videos throughout his NASCAR career.
6. Stephon Marbury, Kenny Anderson - Watcha Gon Do, Terror Squad
This one's great from start to finish and the pair of NBA stars get a ton of screen time.
5. Dan Marino, Alonzo Mourning, Fred Couples - Only Wanna Be With You, Hootie and the Blowfish
As I mentioned above, Darius Rucker can't catch passes from Marino, and three SportsCenter segments make this one of the most sports-heavy music videos of all time.
4. Shaquille O'Neal - Bad Boy For Life, P. Diddy
It gave us another amazing Shaq GIF:
3. Everyone - 2 Legit 2 Quit, MC Hammer
Might win the award for Most Athletes in One Video: Jose Canseco, Isiah Thomas, Kirby Puckett, Jerry Rice, Rickey Henderson, Deion Sanders, Andre Rison, Wayne Gretzky, Chris Mullin, Roger Clemens … and more.
2. Magic Johnson - Remember the Time, Michael Jackson
Another amazing music video from Michael Jackson that stars Magic as an Egyptian announcer at Eddie Murphy and Iman's palace. "That's cold."
1. Michael Jordan - Jam, Michael Jackson
The King of Pop and the GOAT. And MJ tries to dance like MJ. End of discussion.