This is rap basketball, stats all you got.

Respect to The Basketball Jones, the greatest podcast known to man — at least, until (oops!) unless ML gets its own podcast — for pointing out the cameo appearances of NBA players Corey Maggette and Baron Davis in Common’s new video for “Drivin’ Me Wild” (I would’ve missed it otherwise as I wasn’t really digging this song, although the video is helping it grow on me a little).

Corey’s appearance comes up as Common rhymes about a female who thinks she’s bagged a “ball player for the Clippers” (the team C-Mags plays for). As for Lord Baron, well, he’s clearly not new to this rap shit. So, these NBA player cameos aren’t all that “random” (not like, say, Jeremy “Ari Gold” Piven mean-mugging the camera). You know what is random, though? Jalen Rose’s appearance in Styles P’s video for “Good Times (I Get High)”… (at the 2:41 and 3:06 marks)

Not random because it’s Jalen Rose — after all, he did pop up for a quick second in the video for “We Gon’ Make It” — but random because he’s behind turntables with headphones on, looking as if he’s (*gasp*) DJing! Maybe Jalen’s actually got some turntable skills on the low, or perhaps his appearance is just meant to fit the theme of the video, with SP seeing things while he’s blazed. Shit, I can’t recall the number of times I’ve hit up a party, under the influence of something-or-other, and thought to myself, “Am I losing it or is that Jalen Rose on the 1s and 2s?”