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For nearly as long as there have been television shows, celebrities and other notable people have been making cameos. A perfect cameo is just noticeable enough to make you say, “Oh, hey! That’s [insert famous person here]—dope!” without being too distracting. Hopefully the person chosen also adds something to their part, either by virtue of their personality or just by their ironic or surprising presence. But there’s one subgenre of celebrity cameos that are pretty much always enjoyable: athlete cameos.
There are very few—if any—athletes that can brag about being as good on camera as they are on the court. That’s why athlete cameos can often feel awkward or stunted: they’re just not as good as the professional actors they’re standing next to. But the wonderful thing is that’s totally okay: it’s so shocking and exciting to see someone like LeBron James or Kevin Garnett in a setting that doesn’t include a basketball, that you’ll pay attention regardless of how insignificant their role is.
Some cameos, though, smash it out of the park. The best ones make perfect sense within the universe of the show so that you don’t even think twice about why the athlete agreed to the appearance (like Yankees players on Seinfeld or Phillies players on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia). Athletes tend to appear in sitcoms, and a good number of the best cameos come from ‘80s and ‘90s sitcoms that did hundreds of episodes a year and could do with a silly plot here and there to accommodate a role for someone like Kevin McHale on Cheers or Reggie Jackson on The Jeffersons. But the best cameos use the athlete’s existing celebrity and effortlessly seam them into the atmosphere of the show, resulting in scenes like Muggsy Bogues’ in Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Here are some of the most memorable athlete cameos in television shows in modern memory.
Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams
Show: Seinfeld
Year: 1996 (Season 8, Episode 9)
Cameo role: Themselves
As far as athlete cameos go, this one is pretty classic: Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams don’t have big roles, and it’s obvious they won’t be winning any Emmys for their performance. But if Seinfeld was really about nothing, it was at least about nothing in New York City, and to have two Yankees players actually learning from George Costanza makes all the sense in the world in the Seinfeld universe.
Kobe Bryant
Show: Modern Family
Year: 2010
Cameo role: Black Mamba
This cameo is almost gratuitous—what does Kobe Bryant really have to do with this updated family sitcom? But it saves itself on two fronts: first, it’s Kobe, and he’s got major confidence on camera. Second, it’s a pretty relatable situation (at least for those among us who suffer from starstruck syndrome). What would you say if a celebrity like Kobe really just wanted to chat?
Chase Utley and Ryan Howard
Show: It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia
Year: 2010 (Season 6, Episode 11)
Cameo role: Themselves
It’s hard to find a show more geographically grounded to any city than It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is grounded to Philly. That’s why it was so sweet to see two real-life Phillies players on the show; it was both believable and made sense within the plot—everyone’s shirtless and drunk by the end. Even though Chase Utley and Ryan Howard didn’t give great performances, it’s a bona fide Philadelphia moment in an already Philadelphia-heavy show. (Related: if you didn’t shed a tear seeing the gang cheer for the Birds at the Super Bowl this year, you’re probably a narc).
Muggsy Bogues
Show: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Year: 2004
Cameo role: Retired NBA player and restaurant patron
Cameos on Curb Your Enthusiasm are tricky because the show is basically defined by famous people walking in, acting like themselves, watching Larry make a fool of himself, and then walking off. But the show knew exactly what to do with this NBA star. This cameo is great because Muggsy Bogues gets to play himself and play off of one of his most famous traits: that he’s pretty short for an NBA player. But what’s even better is that Larry David and Richard Lewis manage to create the scene a quintessentially awkward Curb moment. It’s like an education in the magic of the show: kinda crass, extremely awkward, and with the single most ridiculous punchline you could imagine, and, as always, at Larry’s expense. It’s just *chef’s kiss*
Reggie Jackson
Show: The Jeffersons
Year: 1985 (Episode 10, Season 11)
Cameo role: Himself
Reggie Jackson’s guest role in “The Unnatural” episode of The Jeffersons is one of those situations that could only exist in a ‘80s sitcom with hundreds of episodes. George is bummed out for days after he is shown on live TV dropping a home run ball he could’ve caught at Yankee Stadium, so his wife goes to Reggie Jackson, the player who had hit the ball, to ask for help in cheering up her husband.
Shaquille O'Neal
Show: Curb Your Enthusiasm
Year: 2009
Cameo role: L.A. Lakers center
Curb Your Enthusiasm is about a curmudgeonly old guy being as “screw you, clouds!” as humanly possible, but there is no more public and humiliating way for Larry David to be Larry David than to ruin the Lakers season by accidentally tripping Shaq. We know from Kazaam that Shaq is a great actor, but in this cameo he doesn’t do much of anything besides writhing on the floor. But it looks like the Curb cameras went all the way in to Staples Center, so it’s a pretty big cameo in terms of atmosphere.
LeBron James
Show: Entourage
Year: 2009 (Season 6, Episode 12)
Cameo role: Himself
In this cameo, LeBron James plays himself and appears alongside Matt Damon, who has been ragging on Vince for not doing enough for charity for weeks. James and Damon engage Vince, Turtle E, and Drama in some light charity competition (“I gave a million, Vince,” is just such a great line). It’s some pretty classic Entourage—there’s Vince literally yelling about a $150,000 check across a private airfield—made all the better by reminding you that LeBron James will always be ten times cooler than any of the guys on Entourage. Combined.
Tom Brady
Show: Entourage
Year: 2009
Cameo role: Golfer at a charity event with Vince, Johnny Drama, E, and Turtle
Look, Brady is a polarizing guy. Nevertheless, we're being objective here when we say that the dude is just not going to find a future in acting. This scene—in which he plays himself participating in a celebrity golf tournament—feels overly rehearsed, which is also kinda what makes it great, because it’s fun to see the guy be bad at something. Also, we’d like an investigation into whether golf balls can be deflated.
Kevin McHale
Show: Cheers
Year: 1991
Cameo role: Substitute bartender at Cheers/ringer in a "charity" basketball game
In this episode, “Cheers Fouls Out,” Cheers casts the Celtics star as a bartender so that he can play in a bartender-only game with a rival bar. The great revelation is that McHale has some pretty great comedic timing—virtually his first line is a perfect jab at Woody Harrelson’s character, and he has a killer final punchline. This is one of those classic cameos where the athlete really just seems to be having fun being on set of the show, and it shows. Plus, it’s one of two McHale cameos on Cheers: the other aired one year after this one and is called “Where Have All The Floorboards Gone?” It features McHale obsessed with the number of bolts in the Boston Garden court.
Don Mattingly
Show: The Simpsons
Year: 1992 (Episode 17, season 3)
Cameo role: Himself
This episode (“Homer at Bat”) boasts a series of athlete guest stars, including Darryl Strawberry, Roger Clemens, and Mike Scioscia, but Don Mattingly takes the cake for the most memorable participation. A haircut ridiculous enough that results in Mattingly getting cut from Mr. Burns’s softball team? Only on The Simpsons.
Jay Cutler
Show: South Park
Year: 2007
Cameo role: Denver Broncos quarterback
It takes a hell of a guy to agree to voice a cartoon character of himself on a show (during an episode that centers around Guitar Hero, of all things) in which he’s the butt of a quick, brutal joke. “You kind of suck, but my dad says you might be good one day,” Stan Marsh tells the then-quarterback of the Denver Broncos. When asked about it, he said he thought it was funny, which only makes the whole thing even better.
Joe Namath
Show: The Simpsons
Year: 1997
Cameo role: Mentor to Bart Simpson
Joe Namath’s appearance on The Simpsons is short but sweet. Bart is practicing football but realizes he’s going to need a miracle in order to be any good at it. Right at that moment, Namath himself rolls up to Bart’s house after his car breaks down due to vapor-lock. Shocked, Bart asks Namath for the secret to football and Namath is just about to answer him when his cars starts up again and he’s off before he enlightening Bart. It’s classic Simpsons humor and a fun way to include an athlete in a show.
Kevin Garnett
Show: The Jamie Foxx Show
Year: 2000
Cameo role: A guest at the King's Tower hotel
This cameo exists in the same joke-universe as Muggsy Bogues’s role in Curb Your Enthusiasm, except it has way more women in it and, as a result, way more dick jokes. Then-Timberwolves player Kevin Garnett plays himself and the owner of a size 22 shoe that Jamie Foxx finds in the episode. The ladies (particularly Sherri Shepherd, who plays Sheila) go crazy over the, well, potential that shoe that size could represent. Karen Maruyama, who plays Gloria the maid, gets the best line: after measuring the length of Garnett’s forearm, she exclaims: “Oh, my gynecologist!” Garnett himself doesn’t do much except, well, be tall.
Scottie Pippen
Show: The Cleveland Show
Year: 2010
Cameo role: Backup singer to Cleveland, Jr.
Famed Bulls forward Scottie Pippen makes a pretty inexplicable cameo during a song and dance number on the FOX cartoon named “Balls Deep.” I guess the connection is the pun on balls, but this is one of those cameos that make very little sense: Pippen is apparently broke and sending off an application to work at the arcade, but also sings in a duet about being “balls deep in love.”
Bo Jackson
Show: The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Year: 1990
Cameo role: One of Will's close friends...in Will's dream
In this early Fresh Prince episode, Will and Carlton are competing with each other to win a date with one lucky lady, and Will tries to turn on the charm by bragging about how many famous people he knows. That includes the 1985 Heisman Trophy winner: Bo Jackson, who even appeared in a commercial for the show.