Knicks Iman Shumpert, Poet

I can almost hear some of you cringe.

We’ve seen some of our favorite ball players put their efforts to a track. They’ve ranged from end to end on the quality scale. On one end was Kobe’s slightly painful attempt:

Guess which end of the spectrum that little performance up there fell on. Frankly, I didn’t realize that Tyra Banks registered as a musician until I heard about this song a few years back. In any case, this was Kobe’s swing at it. He whiffed, badly. I mean, the bat left his hand and it hit a fan. In short, this was not good.

Shaq was another guy from whom we’ve seen some awful stuff. But, he’s more towards the middle of the scale. Though he’s ruined some movie-goers’ plans at some point, he put out some records that, at the very least, had a sort of old-school rap appeal to them.

Kevin Durant’s tries at rap fell recently on the other side of the scale, the one with actual lyrical talent.

Here’s another guy who has shown some lyrical prowess: The Knicks’ Iman Shumpert. We’ve heard the Knicks’ PG put on some impressive lines, going by the pen name “DaBeau”. But this was different. This one had Shumpert’s heart in it. He, unlike perhaps any other athlete trying this whole rap thing, demanded your attention.

Shumpert was spotted at NYC’s The Village Underground, reciting a poem he wrote in honor of his late aunt. Shumpert’s aunt had passed away after a battle with cancer. Couple that with Shumpert’s solid delivery, vocal resemblance to Hopsin, and serious subject matter and you’ve got more than Iman Shumpert, the ball-player.

You’ve got Iman Shumpert, poet:

H/T to Dan Devine @ Ball Don’t Lie.