Basketball has always been historically tied to soundtracks. PA announcers and arena DJs have long known that the right song at the right moment can swing the mood of a building – and, occasionally, the momentum of a game.

As with the best NFL and college football stadium entrance music, the greatest NBA anthems are woven into a franchise’s identity, and some of the league’s most passionate fanbases have made them their own.

Music and sport are famously bonded together and below is a ranking of the best NBA arena songs and hype music, and the teams that have used them.

Ranking Factors

• Recognition – How quickly does a crowd react to the opening bars?
• Basketball connection – Is the song tied to a team, an era or the NBA itself?
• Longevity – Has it stood the test of time?
• Crowd impact – Does it get a building on its feet?

10 “Mo Bamba” – Sheck Wes (Orlando Magic)

No song in this ranking has a closer link to an actual player. Released by Sheck Wes in 2017, “Mo Bamba” took its name from his childhood friend Mohamed Bamba, and it went viral roughly a year later – just as the centre began his NBA career with the Orlando Magic.

It quickly became a favourite in Orlando, and opponents enjoyed it too. In October 2018, Joel Embiid revealed he had asked the Philadelphia 76ers to play it whenever he scored on the Magic’s rookie, and the Wells Fargo Center duly obliged after one dunk. And the opening line and bass drop will always be a certified hype up classic.

9 “Swag Surfin’” – F.L.Y. (Atlanta Hawks)

Released in 2009 by Atlanta hip-hop trio Fast Life Yungstaz, “Swag Surfin’” only peaked at No. 62 on the Billboard Hot 100, but its afterlife has been extraordinary. Rooted in HBCU culture, the song comes with its own ritual: fans lock arms and sway from side to side until an entire stand moves as one. A perfect notion for sports fans in an arena.

It was certified gold in 2019, and in its home city it has become a staple of Atlanta Hawks games. The tradition is so ingrained that its absence gets noticed – when the song was skipped during a Hawks game in December 2025, rapper Boosie publicly asked what he had done wrong.

8 “I Love L.A.” – Randy Newman (Los Angeles Lakers)

Released in 1983 as the lead single from Trouble in Paradise, Randy Newman’s ode to Los Angeles was never intended as a sports anthem – the lyrics carry a hint of irony – but it is now the sound of a Los Angeles win.

The L.A. Lakers, Dodgers, Kings and Rams have all played it after victories, and Newman performed it live at Staples Center before the Lakers’ 2002/03 home opener, the night the franchise unveiled the banner completing its three-peat. For a team with 17 championships, there have been plenty of opportunities to hear it and it remains as adored now as it was when it first dropped.

7 “Don’t Stop Me Now” – Queen (Oklahoma City Thunder)

The Oklahoma City Thunder cycled through several victory songs – AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck”, Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s “Takin’ Care of Business” and Kool & The Gang’s “Celebration” among them – before settling on Queen’s classic from 1978’s Jazz in 2022/23.

According to the team, the brief for a post-game song is simple: it needs to be catchy enough that fans are still singing it on the way to their cars. Freddie Mercury’s vocal and piano intro, which kicks in the moment the final buzzer sounds on a home win, ticks every box. With the Thunder becoming one of the league’s most dominant sides – and NBA champions in 2025 – Paycom Center crowds have heard it a lot.

6 “Get Ready for This” – 2 Unlimited (San Antonio Spurs)

If one song defined the 1990s arena experience, it was this. 2 Unlimited released “Get Ready for This” in 1991, and its pounding synths and “Y’all ready for this?” sample made it an instant fixture at games across North America, cemented by its place on the era-defining Jock Jams compilations.

Its NBA home was San Antonio Spurs, where it served as the Spurs’ unofficial theme and soundtracked their starting lineups until the 2006/07 season – spanning the David Robinson years and Tim Duncan’s early championships, both of whom rank among the greatest players in franchise history. Billboard placed it 10th in its 2024 list of the greatest jock jams of all time, and it featured in the popular Space Jam film.

5 “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” – Dropkick Murphys (Boston Celtics)

The Dropkick Murphys’ Celtic-punk stomp, built around lyrics by Woody Guthrie, became a Boston sporting institution after featuring in Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, and the Boston Celtics play it at TD Garden once the action gets underway.

Lakers great Kobe Bryant revealed in 2015 that he listened to the track constantly to relive the satisfaction of beating the Celtics in the 2010 Finals, two years after losing to them on the same stage. When a rival superstar uses your arena song as personal fuel, it has clearly made its mark.

4 “Thunderstruck” – AC/DC (Boston Celtics, Oklahoma City Thunder)

That finger-tapped riff and the chant of “Thunder!” have made AC/DC’s 1990 single one of the most-played songs in sport. Taken from The Razors Edge, it has sold more than 15 million units, and its slow-building intro is perfect for the seconds before tip-off.

It was once the Oklahoma City Thunder’s victory song – an obvious fit for a team named after the weather – and it still rings out at the Boston Celtics’ home, among countless other arenas.

3 “Go NY Go” – Jesse Itzler (New York Knicks)

Not every great arena anthem began life as a chart hit. “Go NY Go” was written in 1993 by Jesse Itzler, then a young rapper and entrepreneur, who recorded the demo in a closet in his Upper East Side apartment and sold the New York Knicks full ownership of the song for around $4,000.

It caught fire during the Knicks’ run to the 1994 Finals, led by Patrick Ewing – one of the franchise’s all-time greats – and has been a fixture at Madison Square Garden ever since. Its moment finally arrived in 2026: during the Knicks’ Finals run, Spotify streams of the song among their fans rose 2,700%, and New York went on to win its first championship since 1973. Itzler, intriguingly, later became a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks.

2 “Seven Nation Army” – The White Stripes (Miami Heat)

Jack White’s riff has become sport’s universal chant. From boxing, to darts and football, it is a true all-time great. The track opened the White Stripes’ 2003 album Elephant, and its journey to the stands began that October, when Club Brugge fans adopted it before passing it on to Roma supporters, who carried it to Italy’s 2006 World Cup triumph.

In the NBA, it became the soundtrack of the Miami Heat’s Big Three era, when the team used it to introduce LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, and fans began chanting it during play. It needs no lyrics – one hearing of that riff and an entire arena joins in.

1 “Sirius” – The Alan Parsons Project (Chicago Bulls)

There could only be one winner. The instrumental opener of the Alan Parsons Project’s 1982 album Eye in the Sky became, thanks to Chicago Bulls PA announcer Tommy Edwards, the most famous player introduction music in sports history.

Of course, the Chicago Bulls lineup would have elevated any song too, as their arrivals, even now on rewatch, make for an incredible watch. With the lights dropped and spotlights sweeping the floor, the build of “Sirius” into “And now... the starting lineup for your Chicago Bulls” became the overture to Michael Jordan’s six championships, with Ray Clay calling the names through the dynasty years.

Countless teams have since copied the formula, though Parsons has said he never imagined it as sports music. When The Last Dance premiered in 2020, worldwide Spotify plays of the track rose by 335% – proof that, decades on, those opening notes still bring the house down.