Matching the Memphis Grizzlies with their rapper equivalents

Zach Randolph – Biggie Smalls

By Mike Parrott (@MikeParrott_)

Before I start I need to address it, they have the same physical attributes, to put it nicely. But besides that one big similarity they have a lot more than just appearance. Both old-school players in their art, the post-up game and 90s gangster-rap, Biggie and Randolph are two guys you don’t want to mess with.

Both of them were brought up in bad places, Biggie on the mean streets in Brooklyn growing up surrounded by drug dealers and addicts, and Randolph on the Jail Blazers surrounded by the same kind of people.  These surroundings led to Biggie being arrested for selling drugs and Randolph similarly getting in fights with teammates causing three different trades.

Both of them had a change of identity that made them the player they are. Biggie created his pseudonym, the Notorious B.I.G when he featured on Mary J. Blige’s “Real Love,” which led his to success with his 1994 album “Ready to Die.”

Randolph had a change of heart when he joined the Memphis Grizzlies and led them to the second round of the playoffs in 2011, beating the top-seeded San Antonio Spurs. That playoff series changed Randolph from being a locker-room cancer, into a team player on a likeable gritty team that would then be led by him to the conference finals in 2013.

And let’s face it, Biggie was definitely rapping about his love for Zbo as seen in Juicy:

"“I never thought it could happen, this rappin’ stuff I was too used to packin’ gats and stuff Now honies play me close like butter played toast From the Mississippi down to the east coast”"

Change rappin’ to ballin’ and that’s a four-bar verse narrating Randolph’s career.

Next: Tony Allen