Hip hop music and basketball have always shared the same runway, with rappers chasing on court cred while NBA stars flirted with the mic. That dynamic came up again when Freddie Gibbs claimed Chris Brown is the best basketball player among music artists, a nod to Breezy’s legit pickup game reputation.
Gibbs, a Grammy-nominated artist, stopped by the “Winning Formula” podcast on the Ballislife YouTube channel and validated Brown as a dyed-in-the-wool baller. According to Gibbs, CB could just do everything on the basketball court, including stepping on and crushing your ego.
Breezy got skills
Besides being an acclaimed rapper, Gibbs, whose real name is Fedrick Jamel Tipton, is a basketball fan. He claimed, albeit jokingly, that he is a mini version of LeBron James, able to play 1 through 4. The man could be tooting his own horn, but he is from Indiana, the literal hoops hotbed of the country, so he could be right.
Nonetheless, as confident as he was on the hard court, Brown was leagues ahead of him.
“As far as musicians that I hooped against, the best that could hoop? Chris Brown, man,” Gibbs said. “I think Chris Brown can do anything, dawg. Chris Brown hit a 3 on me and then did a backwards flip on the court. I said, ‘This nigga is not real.’ Then, he smoked a cigarette. Ain’t nothing that Chris can’t do. Chris is an alien, man.”
Apart from Chris, Freddie also tipped his hat to Snoop Dogg, who could hold his own on the floor, too. Snoop stands 6’4″, so he could somehow make his presence felt against inferior competition. Still, Brown is on another planet as far as skills are concerned.
“Snoop can hoop. Snoop can do it all, too, but that Chris Brown? Chris Brown will dunk on you, then do a backflip, then smoke a cigarette, then go to the concert on the same night… And will take your girlfriend with him,” he added.
Well, it’s not just Gibbs who thinks Brown got too much sauce. In fact, he was nixed from the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game because he was, well, too good. Rapper Vince Staples, appearing on Paul George’s “Podcast P,” felt he was overqualified for such events.
“Chris Brown don’t count. You can’t be throwing Chris Brown in stuff. He’s not a regular man. He’s got back flips and all kinds of things,” Staples said (H/T: Indy Star). “He don’t get to do stuff with regular people. He’s got to play with y’all.”
PG agreed, saying it wouldn’t take much for Brown to reach the century mark in a celebrity game… and more.
“He can drop 50, do the anthem, do the halftime show. Everything. Draw the jerseys,” George stated.
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Is Chris Brown really the best?
Gibbs was just speaking from experience, ranking Brown at the top of his list among musicians whom he played against. And he was the real deal. Besides PG13, even Ron Artest praised CB’s basketball chops and thought he could have played in the NBA if he worked on it.
That said, is Breezy truly the best out of all artists who play hoops? Well, he may have some competition there in the person of Master P.
The rap mogul, whose real name is Percy Miller, was invited twice to an NBA training camp. Miller briefly attended the Charlotte Hornets camp in 1998, but was released due to his music’s reputation.
“The GM, Bob Bass, called me in and said, ‘You can play. You are a helluva basketball player, but your music is pure filth and it’s a Bible Belt city.’ And they let me go,” Miller told Complex.
A year later, he joined the Toronto Raptors for training camp and appeared on some preseason games with the team. Master P scored eight points against the Vancouver Grizzlies in one of those contests.
Miller ultimately didn’t make it, which makes sense. He missed a lot of fundamental stuff after he prioritized his music career. Still, he certainly had a stronger basketball resume than Brown. After all, Miller played college and pro basketball at some point.
And yes, Master P, along with a few college standouts at the time, did beat Michael Jordan in a pickup game. That should account for something in his hoop cred.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Feb 3, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.