Shawn Bradley was actually the NBA’s Kanye West

Remembering the time Kanye accidentally compared himself to Shawn Bradley.

Apr 9, 2015, 3:20 PM UTC

There are a few references to basketball in Kanye West’s lyrics, but probably the most notable comes from his 2010 single “Monster: ”ain’t nobody cold as this / do the rap and the track, triple double no assists.” It’s a neat little metaphor -- Kanye is saying that he does very impressive stuff all by himself. (He’s kinda fudging what an “assist” is -- if a player had no assists, it would mean they helped nobody, whereas Kanye is saying he received no help -- but we’ll let it slide.)

So we can safely define a Kanye Triple-Double as a performance in which a player manages a triple-double but doesn’t record a single assist. We started wondering which player is the most Kanye?

And the answer is:

Photo credit, Ronald Martinez, Allsport

Shawn Bradley!

Virtually the only way to record a Kanye Triple-Double is with 10 points, 10 rebounds, 10 blocks and no assists. You could hypothetically record one with 10 points, 10 rebounds and 10 steals, and no assists, but we highly doubt this ever happens. There have only been six triple-doubles with steals in NBA history, and all of them were by guards, and guards typically record assists. If you’re handsy and quick enough to get a bunch of steals, you will probably pass from time to time.

So the type of player we’re looking for is a guy with tremendous shotblocking ability and very little desire or ability to pass.

There have been seven Kanye Triple-Doubles in NBA history. Three of them were by Bradley, the 7'6 stiff who spent most of his career with the Mavericks. Most of us associate Bradley with getting dunked on over and over and over and over, and while that's totally fair, Bradley doesn't get the credit he deserves for a long and relatively productive NBA career and often did put up impressive statlines. Bradley was a truly elite shotblocker -- he got dunked on so often in part because he tried to block so many shots, and in part because he was an enormous stick figure -- and actually recorded six triple-doubles with blocks over the course of his career.

In three of those games, he failed to tally an assist, meaning Bradley accounts for almost half of the Kanye Triple-Doubles in NBA history. Dikembe Mutombo had two, Serge Ibaka had one, and the most recent one was by Hassan Whiteside in January. (Yes, people referenced the fact that he got a Kanye Triple-Double.)

So, yeah, our point is Kanye accidentally compared himself to Shawn Bradley and admitted that Shawn Bradley is the most Kanye NBA Player Of All Time. They obviously have a ton in common. Here’s a list

-- The Kanye song in question was “Monster,” and Shawn had his talents taken by the Monstars in Space Jam

-- This