Famous Athletes Who Starred In Music Videos

The following article includes a brief reference to sexual abuse.

Most athletes are pros at entertaining fans — it's in the job description. Still, beyond being GOATs in their respective sports and winning championships, several have shown off their other skills outside of games. For example, Dwayne Johnson transformed from a wrestling superstar to one of the most successful leading men in Hollywood. Meanwhile, legendary NHL star Wayne Gretzky participated in onscreen projects like the Saturday morning cartoon series "ProStars," per Vice. "The only water I like is the frozen version known as ice," he quips in an episode. The Great One is also credited in several music videos, including the epic 14-minute long "2 Legit 2 Quit" by MC Hammer. The 1991 music video actually features cameos from a wide range of athletes, such as NFL stars Jerry Rice and Deion Sanders, plus baseball players Roger Clemens and José Canseco.

In fact, music and sports have long been intertwined. Take, for example, 2019's "The Unauthorized Bash Brothers Experience" by Andy Samberg and the rest of The Lonely Island comedy group, which pokes fun at Canseco and his former teammate on the Oakland Athletics, Mark McGwire (via Vulture). Meanwhile, Drake has long made headlines as a huge fan of his hometown NBA team, the Toronto Raptors — and more than just sitting courtside to cheer on his favorite ballers, the rapper became the team's global ambassador in 2013, as reported by ESPN. He also appears to have a dedicated spot in the Raptors' locker room.

Like the other musicians listed below, Drake has also called upon famous athletes to star in his music videos.

NBA Hall of Fame player Shaquille O'Neal was one of the most formidable big men on the court during his prime. The 7-footer raked in Olympic golds and NBA championships, thanks to his huge wingspan and size 22 sneakers. Yet, the late pop star and younger brother of Backstreet Boy Nick Carter, Aaron Carter, once boasted about besting the basketball star. "That's How I Beat Shaq" was the fourth single from his 2000 album "Aaron's Party (Come Get It)," per Genius, and as a 13-year-old Aaron rapped in the chorus, "I swear that I'm telling you the facts / 'Cause that's how I beat Shaq." 

While it might seem like a dream, it turns out the tale was based on a true story. The Backstreet Boys recorded demos for their titular debut album in the music studio at O'Neal's house — and occasionally, Nick would bring along his younger brother, who played O'Neal in a game of H-O-R-S-E (if one person misses five of the same shots the other player made, game over). "We had a H-O-R-S-E game one day and he beat me!" O'Neal admitted on the "HappE! Hour" Instagram series in 2020 (via E! News). As if losing wasn't bad enough, the basketball pro added, "[Aaron] came back and said, 'I want to do a song.' And I said sure. He asked me to be in the video and I said sure."

O'Neal, who'd cameoed in the video for Master P's "Make Em Say Uhh!" a few years earlier, noted, "I've been knowing those guys ever since 1992."

When Cher released her song "Believe" in 1998, it was the first time many music fans heard a peculiar effect. She purposely used a pitch-correction technology known as Auto-Tune. This launched a new era for music, with many musicians — like T-Pain and Kanye West, for example — turning to this effect to create a distinctive sound, as Pitchfork reported. By 2009, rapper Jay-Z was seemingly fed up with its use in mainstream hip-hop and released a song called "D.O.A." (which stands for "Death of Auto-Tune"). In addition to criticizing certain artists — with lyrics like, "You n***** singin' too much / Get back to rap, you T-Pain'n too much" (via Genius) — the music video features Jay-Z at an outdoor basketball court and playing with the NBA legend LeBron James.

The two superstars appeared to already be regular pals when James was just starting out in the league with the Cleveland Cavaliers. For example, when Jay-Z was in C-town while on tour in 2003, James came on board the tour bus for an MTV interview alongside the rapper. While Hova clearly holds adoration for James, the love goes right back, as displayed in clips of James singing the words to many of the musician's songs, per All Urban Central.

Beyond memorizing lyrics, James officially became involved in the rap scene when he became an A&R — that is, artists and repertoire — with the Los Angeles Laker playing an instrumental role in 2 Chainz's 2019 album "Rap or Go to the League," according to Complex.

An unmissable song of the '90s was "Only Wanna Be with You" by Hootie & the Blowfish. The track was one of several hit songs for the band that propelled their 1994 album "Cracked Rear View" into the stratosphere — as of 2022, it was the 10th best performing album ever in America with 21 million certified units, according to the RIAA. The popular tune also features the peculiar lyric, "And you wonder why / I'm such a baby 'cause the Dolphins make me cry" (via Genius). 

Listening to the song, it would be easy to think lead singer Darius Rucker gets emotional around marine wildlife. In fact, he was referring to the NFL team the Miami Dolphins. Rucker grew up rooting for the team, with star quarterback Dan Marino leading the way. For his part, Marino played for 17 seasons with the Dolphins but never won a championship, making him one the best players to never don a Super Bowl ring, as CBS Sports recapped. And toward the end of the music video for "Only Wanna Be with You," Marino is seen throwing a football to Rucker, who's wearing a Dolphins jersey.

Outside of filming the video, Marino later revealed on "The Dan Patrick Show" that he has been to at least 25 Hootie & the Blowfish concerts. As for Rucker, he actually named his daughter, Dani, after the quarterback, with Marino admitting he learned about the name choice following her birth. "It's cool," Marino said of Rucker. "He's a fan."

Only the bravest fighters dared go up against boxer "Iron Mike" Tyson, known for his aggressive fighting. Yet, there's much more to Tyson than a mean uppercut — like when he had a one-man Broadway show called "Undisputed Truth" in 2012, per The Guardian. While he didn't sing and dance on the stage, Tyson does make his own music, such as a 2017 diss track aimed toward Soulja Boy. However, the athlete has also been involved in the music industry through a wide variety of artists. In 2015, for example, he was a featured guest alongside Chance the Rapper on Madonna's song "Iconic," and also appeared in the music video. 

"Madonna calls you and tells you to come somewhere, you go," Tyson told Rolling Stone. While they initially met in the late '80s while on a double date with their then-spouses, when Madge asked the boxer to provide the intro to "Iconic," Tyson admitted, "I didn't know what the hell I was going there for." Having improvised his contribution to the song, he explained of his time in the studio, "I just go in there and start talking. I'm talking about my life and things that I have endured. I'm saying some really crazy stuff. It was really intense."

Fortunately, Tyson already had experience working with another pop icon: Whitney Houston. He made a split-second cameo in her 1990 music video for "My Name Is Not Susan." Many years later, Tyson also turned up in Eminem's "Godzilla" music video, in which he punches the rapper to the ground before apologizing.

Los Angeles Lakers icon Magic Johnson's connection to Michael Jackson goes all the way back to the late King of Pop's Jackson 5 days. The NBA alum even got to travel with the group a few times while they were on the road during their heyday.

"Michael Jackson, he was such a perfectionist," Johnson reflected of this time to Variety in 2022, going on to reveal how he once convinced Jackson to attend one of his games. "He sat down; people went crazy," Johnson recalled, noting that Jackson had almost declined for fear that he would instead become the spectacle of the night. "They were running from upstairs, the sides. We had to stop the game to get him out."

The two appeared to be remain close, as evidenced in a later photo of the much taller Johnson with his arm around Jackson. Fast forward to 1991, when Johnson publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with HIV and, as a result, retired from basketball. The following year, Johnson made a cameo in Jackson's music video for "Remember the Time." Viewers can spot the athlete as the assistant to an Egyptian pharaoh played by Eddie Murphy. In a 2009 essay written for Rolling Stone, the video's director John Singleton remembered Jackson saying, "Whatever you want to make this as cool as possible, let's do it. Let's get Eddie Murphy. Let's get Magic Johnson." With Johnson having just revealed his HIV-positive status, Jackson urged Singleton, "We have to put Magic in this video."

In the music video for his 2001 song "Bad Boy 4 Life," Sean Combs — who at that point went by P. Diddy — called in a bunch of favors. Playing in the video's band is Dave Navarro on guitar, formerly of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; on the drums is Travis Barker, the drummer for Blink-182. "You see how the cultures mix and we're all able to get along," P. Diddy told MTV News about the video. "It's not like I just called my friends for cameos; they all play parts," he added.

As far as athletes go, Mike Tyson makes an appearance, as do basketball stars Shaquille O'Neal and Baron Davis. Fittingly, that latter veteran basketball player — who sadly retired after 14 seasons in the NBA following a gruesome knee injury in a 2012 NBA playoff game — was sometimes referred to by the nickname B-Diddy during his career, according to Bleacher Report. Meanwhile, 2001 would also see Davis make another cameo in the "Livin' It Up" music video from rapper Ja Rule.

In 2013, rapper Jay-Z expanded his entrepreneurial portfolio by getting involved with professional baseball and signed the New York Yankees' infielder Robinson Cano to his Roc Nation Sports division. "Because of my love of sports, it was a natural progression to form a company where we can help top athletes in various sports the same way we have been helping artists in the music industry for years," Jay-Z said in a statement (via Forbes). At that point, the musician already owned a stake in the Brooklyn Nets. Showing an even wider appreciation for all types of sports, he once worked with two NASCAR stars: Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr. 

The two drivers appear in the music video for Jay-Z's track "Show Me What You Got," the lead single on his 2006 album "Kingdom Come." It marked his first musical release after un-retiring from rap, and ever the businessman, Hova also calls out his champagne brand Armand de Brignac (aka Ace of Spade) in the lyrics, per Genius.

Patrick, Earnhardt Jr., and Jay-Z filmed their scene in the tiny country of Monaco, which was fitting for the expensive supercars they're seen driving in the video: Earnhardt Jr. drives a Ferrari F430 Spider with Jay-Z in the passenger seat, while Patrick has a Pagani Zonda all to herself. Per GQ, Jay-Z actually happened to own both cars. "It just felt fun," he told MTV News of making the track.