'SLAM' Asked Every NBA Team Who Their Locker Room DJ Is
“Joel likes to take over the music, but he only plays ‘Wicked’ by Future. That’s the only song he ever plays.”
Basketball and music go together like peanut butter and jelly, which coincidentally, is the sandwich of choice for the NBA. Like many aspects of life that require a bit of motivation, music is the ultimate hype tool for hoopers, whether it’s their own choice of tunes as they walk into the arena or it’s a DJ blasting beats during warmups. But what happens when the players get together in the locker room: who chooses the playlist then? SLAM Magazine spoke to every NBA team to find out who their locker room DJ is and what kind of music they play. Check out a few of our favorites below, before heading over to slamonline.com to read the full list.
Los Angeles Lakers: Thomas Robinson or Jordan Clarkson
“Some guys enjoy the new stuff and some guys enjoy the older rap. I would say JC or me. We always got our speaker with us no matter what. [I play] Meek [Mill], Travis Scott, Jada, HOV and that’s when they start getting shady ’cause that’s when I start playing Jada, HOV and all them. We got a lot of young players and they like it but they listen to Lil’ Yachty, Lil; Uzi and all that.” — Thomas Robinson
Miami Heat: Shared
“Sometimes Wayne Ellington, sometimes me. Hassan [Whiteside] always comes with some new heat, being best friends with DJ Khaled. He’s fortunate enough to get some tracks before they hit the market. We on everything right now. Money Man, the Futures, of course.” — James Johnson
Oklahoma City Thunder: Russell Westbrook
“Everybody knows who’s in charge in our locker room, man. He goes with a lot of Biggie, a lot of Lil Uzi Vert, you know that from his commercial. And if you’re going to try to do take control, you better bring something good otherwise it’s being changed quick.” — Josh Huestis
Milwaukee Bucks: John Henson
“Probably John, but I sort of force my will on the team. See, they’re not high on Kendrick Lamar. I like music. They like all that other stuff, that rowdy stuff. He likes to play 21 Savage, Future.” — Jabari Parker
Denver Nuggets: Shared
“I only get it on Wednesdays.” — Mike Miller
“Yup. White Boy Wednesdays.” — Jameer Nelson
Philadelphia 76ers: Joel Embiid
“Joel likes to take over the music, but he only plays ‘Wicked’ by Future. That’s the only song he ever plays, and he starts dancing to it all the time. Robert Covington, too, on our team, he likes to take over as DJ. And then TJ McConnell as well, but when TJ takes over, he plays soft music, he doesn’t play pump up music, so we try to keep him off the 1s and 2s.” — Nik Stauskas
Minnesota Timberwolves: Shared
“Tyus [Jones] DJs a little bit. We don’t let Andrew [Wiggins] touch it because he’ll bring some Canadian rappers or something into it that we don’t want to mess with. My go-tos are Chief Keef, Montana of 300. I’m from the West Coast so of course YG. Tyus is into Lil’ Uzi and 21 Savage. Ricky [Rubio] listens to the Macarena.” — Zach LaVine
Portland Trail Blazers: Ed Davis
“21 Savage, Future are go-tos. We put Dame on there every now and then. But he don’t like for us to play his music too much.” — Ed Davis
San Antonio Spurs: Nobody
“The only time we have someone DJ is when we’re lifting weights, at the facility. In the locker room, everybody’s in their own zone.” — Dejounte Murray
Detroit Pistons: Henry Ellenson
“Henry. We call him ‘Hennessy.’ He has everything…He’s usually there an hour-and-a-half early putting the music on. He’s usually on some Lil Wayne, Young Thug, anything poppin’. Now he’s on a lot of Quavo. I didn’t expect it, either. The first couple times I was like, ‘Who’s playing music?’” — Stanley Johnson
Cleveland Cavaliers: LeBron James
“One thing about LeBron’s music is you can get Eminem, Jay-Z — he’s got the largest library. The most random thing he’s put in was in Toronto, we listened to ’70s dance music.” — Jordan McRae
Golden State Warriors: Shared
“Either JaVale [McGee], I do the weight room a lot, and sometimes Zaza gets tired of our young music, so he comes over there and puts on some house music or something I’ve never heard in my life before. About once a week I gotta deal with it.” — Kevon Looney
