Two-Time NBA Champion Earl Cureton’s 7 Favorite Songs for Game Time

It’s the eve of the NBA Finals—and we’re back with a little basketball, combined with music, and content. Two years ago, former NBA star Muggsy Bogues (the shortest player ever to don an NBA uniform) shared with American Songwriter his 10 most inspiring songs to listen to before game time. Well, now two-time NBA champion Earl Cureton is here to weigh in with his faves.

The Detroit-born Cureton was recruited to college by Dick Vitale and played in the NBA Finals two out of his first three years. In 1983, the team, led by Dr. J and Moses Malone, won the whole thing, beating Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Eleven years later in 1994, Cureton joined the Houston Rockets days before the playoffs and helped the team on its run to the NBA championship. The Rockets defeated the New York Knicks that summer and Cureton earned his second ring with the likes of Hakeem Olajuwon.

But as everyone knows, music and basketball have long been connected. Through R&B, rock, and hip-hop, the sport and the sounds have always been fused. What were the 14-year veteran Cureton’s favorite songs to listen to when hyping himself up before a game? What did he and his teammates play in the locker room?

Let’s dive into what he told American Songwriter.

1. “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” McFadden & Whitehead

“McFadden & Whitehead had this song ‘Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now,” and around my second year in Philadelphia, we used to play that song all the time.

2. “Purple Rain,” Prince

“In Detroit, we listened to a lot of Prince. Isiah [Thomas] loved Prince. That Purple Rain album, when it came out, we played that to death.”

3. “Freaks Come Out at Night,” Whodini

“Whodini, ‘Freaks Come Out at Night’! [Laughs] We used to play Whodini a lot in Detroit.”

4. “A House Is Not a Home,” Luther Vandross

“Andrew Toney used to love Luther.”

5. “The Longest Time,” Billy Joel

“I used to listen to Billy Joel—the old Billy Joel. Not the new stuff. ‘The Longest Time,’ that one where he used to harmonize in the beginning.”

6. “Funkin’ for Jamaica,” Tom Browne

“Me and Andrew used to listen to ‘Funkin’ for Jamaica’—that was a basketball song. They still play it, I think.”

7. “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’,” Michael Jackson

“When Michael’s music came out, in my Detroit days, when all his stuff was out, we listened to that a lot. But we were also Prince crazy. Prince and Michael were at the top of the boards back then.”

Photo by Allen Einstein / Courtesy Earl Cureton