A thousand and one stories about music and basketball

Everybody knows that music and basketball always go hand in hand. There are many playlists that can be easily found in the vast ocean of the Internet with compilations of excellent songs to listen to during the preview of the matches when our favourite teams play, or as a soundtrack for the best plays of the day. The Endesa Music Lover and Jardín de las Delicias musical programme in the fan zone at the basketball "Copa del Rey" in Badalona is surely a good example of what is united by these two passions. Music lovers and basketball lovers together. A real win-win situation.

It will be an ideal opportunity to meet people who share these two passions, and perhaps be able to talk about anecdotes and unusual stories that arise from the relationship between basketball and music.

There is more than one surprising secret inside this box with two keys. For example, the one kept by Prince Rogers Nelson. Quite right, Prince. Love Symbol. While he knew from a young age that music would be his destiny, he also had a natural talent for basketball during his years as a student at Central High School in his hometown of Minneapolis. Despite being only one metre sixty tall, he played for two years in the high school team, apparently demonstrating speed and ability for the game, although his musical talent (and surely his height) finally decided the rest.

Not long after Prince triumphed worldwide with the Purple Rain ballad, Red Hot Chili Peppers released their fourth album, 'Mother's Milk'. The first after the John Frusciante joined on guitar and Chad Smith on drums, completing the band's classic line-up, to make one of music's classic albums. Any fan of the band will know that the album includes a song called "Magic Johnson", without a doubt a good example of the wild fusion between funk, punk and rock that the band developed thereafter. Real fans will also know that a later special edition of the album also included an instrumental 'Salute to Kareem', dedicated to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, for which there was no room in the original version.

Another good story about Pearl Jam is that before they were called Pearl Jam, they were called after the NBA player Mookie Blaylock.  They actually played a few concerts under that name, but they finally chose to change to Pearl Jam, although for the title of their first album they used the number of Blaylock's shirt, the classic 'Ten'. Later, another album cover would point to the fondness of Eddie Vedder's band for basketball: One of the polaroid photos used on the album 'No Code' album is one of Dennis Rodman's eyes.

Still in Seattle, Band of Horses also included a song named after a player: Detlef Schrempf. The SuperSonics, the team where this player from Germany played, left an indelible mark on Seattle, both athletically and culturally. In the case of the ill-fated Kobe Bryant, who also took his first steps in music, his influence on musical culture reaches worldwide and breaks records, since he is the athlete whose name appears in more songs in the history of music, more than 1,147. (These are data from 2020, so surely there will be some more). These include '6 Rings' by Bad Bunny, which he wrote as a tribute to the player after his death. By the way, Bad Bunny is co-owner of the Puerto Rican team Cangrejeros de Santurce.

Finally, and now in Spain, it really is not possible to write about basketball and music without mentioning Loquillo. When he was still known as José María Sanz Beltrán, before becoming one of the legends of Spanish rock and roll, 'El Loco' played in the same team as Epi. The former Barcelona player plays a leading role in a video called "Memoria de Jóvenes airados", together with Solozabal, Andrés Jiménez, Manolo Flores, Agustí Cuesta and Javier Mendiburu.

As you can see, a thousand and one stories and anecdotes to share while they are playing the basketball "Copa del Rey" in Badalona with new music lovers. What music and basketball have united, let nothing separate it.