If Tupac Shakur played basketball: small forward, rated 80

Tupac Shakur as a basketball player: scouting report

Tupac Shakur studied acting, poetry and ballet at the Baltimore School for the Arts as a teenager, and that mix of discipline and expression is what he would bring to small forward. His basketball IQ is the top mark on his card and his defense is right behind it, so he plays the wing with intensity and intelligence at the same time, picking up his man early and refusing to give up an easy catch.

He was a serious actor as well, with leading roles in Juice and Poetic Justice, and he wrote poetry throughout his life, later collected in The Rose That Grew from Concrete. His athleticism grades out well, so he can turn a deflection into a dunk at the other end, and his passing is sharp for a wing. All Eyez on Me, one of the first double albums in hip hop, showed his appetite for a heavy workload; he is the player who wants to guard the best scorer for the whole game and still have something left for the fourth quarter. His jumper is solid enough to punish a defense that ignores him.

Rebounding is the honest weak spot, the lowest mark on his card. He is a perimeter defender first, so his team needs a big who controls the glass. Shooting guard and power forward are both close fits, which makes him a flexible wing for lineups that like to switch everything. Take him in the early middle rounds as your defensive tone setter, pair him with a playmaking point guard and a rebounding center, and let him set the energy for everyone else.

Plays like An intense wing defender with a poet's feel for the game

Put Tupac Shakur in your lineup

8 rolls, a starting five and a bench, 82 games. Can you go 82-0? Free, no account.