Master P remembers almost fighting Anthony Mason in practice while playing for the Charlotte Hornets
Master P and Anthony Mason got into it at one of their practices
Famous rapper and producer Master P made a guest appearance on the Club Shay Shay podcast, where he talked about his short stint playing basketball professionally during the NBA preseason.
Master P had a short NBA career
Something that is now well known, especially among younger NBA fans, is that Master P was a solid basketball player who, for a brief moment, actually played for the Charlotte Hornets and later on with the Toronto Raptors. When he joined the Hornets in the summer of 1998, he came to a team with a solid group of players and was a legitimate playoff team.
Master P shares what that experience looked like for him, especially his encounter with the late great Anthony Mason, who was known as a real tough guy and an enforcer nobody wanted to mess around with by any means. Despite having tremendous respect for Mason, Master P remembers Mason as a bully who treated him as an ordinary rookie rather than a superstar, which he certainly was when he came to play for the Hornets.
Apparently, they almost got into a fight in practice after Master P committed a hard foul on Mason, who explicitly said rookies could not touch him. Master P didn't care, and he never backed down from Mason, which immediately earned him extra points with the big men.
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"Me and Anthony Mason end up being friends, but we got into it when I first came there. He is from New York, and I'm from New Orleans. God bless the dead, that was my dude, but when I first got there, Anthony Mason was a bully. I'm on a team with Anthony Mason, Derrick Coleman, BJ Armstrong, Dell Curry, and when I got to training camp, Mason said, 'don't anybody touche me' to all the rookies. Nobody touch me in practice, or we're going to have a problem. So you know me being from New Orleans, as soon as he went for a shot, I hit him. This dude was like 6'10", I'm 6'4, and he said we are about to fight after practice. I told him we are going to fight right now, and then he starts saying, man, I like you; you are tough.
Master P, via Club Shay Shay
The incident with Mason turned them into friends
They even became friends after the incident, and when Master P asked the Hornets head coach what would've happened if he actually got into a fight with Mason, he said all that remains within the team compounds.
We ended up being friends after that. I asked the coach what would happen if we fight and the coach said whatever happens in the gym stays in the gym.
Master P, via Club Shay Shay
Soon after, Mason and Master would settle their dispute like grown men and forget about the whole incident. Unlike Mason, who had a long and pretty productive NBA career, Master P never logged in minutes in an official NBA game. He did, however, record two appearances in the preseason games for both the Hornets and the Raptors. He would later dedicate his time solely to music, various businesses, and becoming a very successful entrepreneur. Even though he loved the game of basketball, he was talented enough for other things that eventually brought him fame, success, and wealth.
