It's often said that all athletes secretly want to be musicians. With the NBA draft going down tonight, not only is the league getting an injection of youth, but also the next great player turned rapper - joining the likes of champions and role players alike who have traded in the roundball for the microphone. We explore our five favorite.

Admit it, you're already skeptical. The very notion of a "best" NBA rapper could easily be changed to the "least awful" NBA rapper and it could mean the same thing. While this is probably true in 99.9 percent of cases, there are a handful of former/current NBA players who actually had a little bit of talent - appearing alongside/with hip-hop heavyweights and underground legends.

Many of the best records to feature NBA players stems from a 1994 project, B-Ball's Best Kept Secret, which was the brainchild of James Andrews and Hutson Miller who convinced LA-based Epic subsidiary Immortal Records to give them a $300,000 record budget to record a hip-hop album with an athletic twist. While the project was hit or miss (we're looking at you Jason Kidd), it was surprising in several instances. With three out of our top five from that project, it left only a few spots up for grabs.

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Iman Shumpert Song: "Supaphly"

While Iman Shumpert and his Cavs teammates fell short of their championship aspirations when they were knocked off by the Golden State Warriors, many believe that despite being shorthanded during the Finals, Shumpert's acquisition early in the season proved to be the catalyst for a championship charge (the Cavs were just 19-16 at the time of the trade).

ESPN called Cleveland Cavs guard the "best athlete-turned rapper" back in 2012. Shumpert responded to the usual criticism of a basketball player dabbling in music in a refreshing way. "Most of them tried so hard to make a pop song rather than make music that they like," he said. "I’m not making music to get played in a club. I’m making the music that I need to get through certain situations. People gravitate towards that because it’s more real. We may be pro athletes, with all those perks, but we’re still people. And we’re going through the same things."

Rapping under the moniker “2wo 1ne” - a play off of his jersey number he wore at the time for the New York Knicks - he managed to snag a guest spot on his debut mixtape from Chrisette Michele who notably worked alongside Jay Z on "Lost One."

Shumpert told ESPN: "I’m influenced by guys like Kanye and Kendrick Lamar, people with a clear vision of themselves and what they want to do. I know people are going to say this and that about athletes who rap, but I know in my mind what I want to do, and I’m confident that it’ll work out in the end. I like people who want to be great, like Jay Z."

UPDATE:

Listen to Iman Shumper's remix of Drake's "Hotline Bling."

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Brian Shaw Song: "Anything Can Happen"

Even when Brian Shaw landed his first heading coaching gig with the Denver Nuggets - after a successful career as both a player and trusted assistant coach to Phil Jackson - he hadn't quite lost the rapping bug he got in the mid '90s when he was notably being caught by Ty Lawson as he rapped a scouting report.

Shaw was a standout on 1994's B-Ball's Best Kept Secret. While other players on the album had devoted time and effort to honing their skills, it seems Shaw's laid-back, Bay Area style wasn't something that he practiced. "That was the first and only time I had ever written some lyrics down," Shaw told Deadspin.

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Shaquille O'Neal Song: "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)"

Shaquille O'Neal is undoubtedly not only the best NBA player to try his hand at music, but also the most successful to ever do it. He released four studio albums, two compilation albums, two soundtracks, one unreleased album and nine singles. His debut, Shaq Diesel, peaked at number 25 on the Billboard 200 and went platinum. His followup, Shaq Fu: Da Return peaked at number 67 on the Billboard 200 and went gold. His third album, You Can't Stop the Reign, has the distinction of featuring the likes of The Notorious B.I.G., Jay Z and Mobb Deep. Of his four albums, he never sold less than 100,000 units of each project.

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Cedric Ceballos Song: "Ya Don't Stop"

During his NBA career, Cedric Ceballos made one All-Star team and notably won the dunk contest in 1992 when he was one of the first players ever to use a prop for dramatic effect.

Joined by an all-star trio of guest stars like Grand Puba, Sadat X, AG and Diamond D, Ceballos managed to hold his own amongst a cast of hip-hop heavyweights. Diamond D recalled to Complex about recording the song: “I remember Dana Barros. I liked his verse. During the session though, Sadat and A.G. said Cedric Ceballos tried to say some old slick shit about somebody’s rhyme or some shit. And they said all they did was look at each other and bust out laughing. Like, 'This dude can’t be serious.’"

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Dana Barros Song: "Check It"

Known primarily as a versatile - albeit small - point guard who could shoot the three and break down defenses with his slashing ability, Dana Barros' earned All-Star honors and the NBA's Most Improved Player award in 1995 - notably scoring 50 points on 21-26 shooting against the Rockets.

Having appeared on the aforementioned song, "Ya Don't Stop," alongside NBA player Cedric Ceballos, his solo song on B-Ball's Best Kept Secret proved that Barros was cut from a similar cloth as Lord Finesse.

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