From the release of his first album "Illmatic" to his amazing "Hip-Hop is Dead" Nas was my favorite rapper. Nas is perfect at crossing conscienceness with mainstream Hip-Hop, especially during that span. In recent years he has become more of a conscience MC, but in his prime there was no better rapper, and as far as I'm concerned he is a Top 5 Rapper All-Time. Nas had several hit songs, but none was as catchy or memorable has "Hate Me Now" from his "I Am..." record. The track has an epic feel to it, due in large part to the Carmina Burana sample, and features Diddy at a time when he was known as Puff Daddy.
Mark Jackson played for several teams during his NBA tenure, including the New York Knicks twice, but it was his two tours as an Indiana Pacer that are most memorable. While now I'm a hardcore Lakers fan, I grew up rooting for the New York Knicks, and Mark Jackson, not Reggie Miller, was the guy I loved to hate. Everyone knew Reggie could hit the big shot, and he did several times, but Mark Jackson was the king of the dagger-shot, Jackson hit so many big daggers as a member of the Pacers, that goes almost forgotten because of Reggie's heroics. Jackson was a key part to the Pacers, before getting Mark Jackson, the Pacers where a fringe team, with the arrival of Jackson the Pacers would be a championship contender every year. They had several intense battles with Michael Jordan and his Bulls and of course the Knicks, and in 2000 the Pacers went to the NBA Finals, only to lose in 6 Games to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Mark Jackson won the Rookie of the Year Award, made an All-Star appearance in the 1989, is 2nd All-Time in Assists (only John Stockton has more) and as Charles Barkley has said before "The Great One's Change the Game" the NBA invented a rule called the "5-Second Rule" where a player is not allowed to back down a player while posting-up for 5 seconds, this was a patented move by Mark Jackson, which has caused the 5-Second Rule to sometimes be known as the "Mark Jackson Rule".
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