I DON’T KNOW ABOUT YOU, but whenever I want to look inside an NBA star’s pensive, brooding soul, I turn to his vanity hip hop albums. Listen to a track from any of Los Angeles Lakers’ star Shaquille O’Neal’s five albums, for instance, and you begin to understand how Shaq views the world around his 7-foot-1-inch, 338-pound self. Take this introspective passage from the all-star’s modestly titled “I’m Outstanding,” off of the album “Shaq Diesel”: So make way, I’m coming in for a landing / And nothing’s gonna’ stop me, from being outstanding / I’m outstanding . . . Shaq isn’t the only NBA player in touch with his poetic side. Philadelphia ’76er Allen Iverson recorded his own rap album, “Misunderstood,” but eventually decided against releasing the LP. Some of the album’s tracks made it onto the Internet, however, and while the bar for basketball-playing rappers is set rather low, Iverson rates as the best of the pack. Here, for instance, is a passage from the song “40 Bars,” in which Iverson explores the pangs of celebrity:
Die for zero digits; I’m a giant, y’all midgets
I know killers that kill for a fee
That’ll kill your ass for free, believe me
How you wanna die, fast or slowly?
Fast as a rolie, slow as a rolie polie?
