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Escobar Caesar

| 03:12 PM ET  04.20 | In light of LeBron James comparing himself to Jay-Z and DeShawn Stevenson to Soulja Boy, I began to think: a lot of NBA players have their hip-hop equivalent. Here's a few: (I apologize for this not being broken up) RAY ALLEN = TALIB KWELI. Yeah. Jesus Shuttlesworth is legendary in the game for his pure, smooth, consistent 3 point shot. Mr. Kweli? The same can be said about his lyrics. Viewed by many as one of, if not the best lyricist of all time. ALLEN IVERSON = JA RULE. Both used to dominate the game. During the early part of this century, you couldn't get away from Ja. Ja Rule featuring Mary J. Blige, Ashanti, Fat Joe, by himself. Ja Rule used to dominate the airwaves. But after one of the most highly publicized beefs of all time with 50 Cent, a picking fights with, among others, DMX, Busta Rhymes, Common, Eminem and Dr. Dre, Ja Rule has fallen off. The same is true of AI. Allen used to be the truth. Everywhere, you saw AI tees, drawstring bags, jerseys, shoes, video games. People started rocking cornrows and sleeves because of him. But after a nasty feud with Larry Brown, and later Mo Cheeks, The Answer fell out of public favor and forced his way out of Philly. Nobody cares about him anymore. NATE ROBINSON = BUSHWICK BILL. Violent midgets. All I have to say. CHRIS PAUL = LUPE FIASCO. CP3 is the new Iverson, if you ask me. Minus the tattoos, of course. He is the new standard at point guard in the NBA, in my opinion, the best at what he does. A breath of fresh air. Just like Lupe is for hip hop. A break from the norm, a great thing for a genre that has become sort of watered down. KOBE BRYANT = NAS. Nasir Jones, by far my favorite rapper of all time, as many in this group have noticed. One of the greatest ever, and arguably the best alive. However, Nas is beginning to be supplanted by Lupe and Ludacris as my favorite rapper currently making music. Kobe was even bigger than AI. Everybody and their grandmother loved Kobe before the rape trial began. He was my favorite player, but got supplanted by LeBron and CP3 over time. I still like him, and acknowledge that he is a little better than Bron Bron. >>>>>Well, those are just five comparisons I came up with. Feel free to leave your comparisons in the comments. Have a great day.