The voice of “NBA Jam” reveals the origins of the legendary “Boomshakalaka!” slogan from the video game

Attention, 90s kids: The 44-minute “NBA Jam” documentary is now streaming on Vice TV! This is not a drill.

The network recently launched a new documentary series, Non-Stop: The True Story of Basketballwhich focuses on legendary players and iconic roundball moments that changed the sport forever. The first part, produced by LeBron James and Maverick Carter, focused on the unforgettable Seattle SuperSonics team of Shawn Kemp/Gary Payton, with additional episodes on Pistol Pete Maravich, The Globetrotters, Bill Laimbeer and more.

Are Pistol Pete and Bill Laimbeer NBA legends? Absolutely. No question. Can they literally throw fireballs after scoring three consecutive baskets? Absolutely not.

It is difficult to convey how popular “NBA Jam” was in the video game scene of the 90s. Released in April 1993, the now legendary, over-the-top two-on-two basketball game featuring real NBA players made a Billion dollars in its first year, surpassing the video game icon “Mortal Kombat” by 153%. To put that into perspective: The number one film of the year, Jurassic Parkgrossed about $340 million at the box office.

But to be fair Jurassic ParkRaptors didn’t perfect the art of the slam dunk until 1998.

The popularity of NBA Jam transcended basketball and became a staple of the cultural zeitgeist. The game’s lasting legacy is highlighted by one word: Boomshakalaka. Where exactly did this linguistic masterpiece come from?

The voice of NBA Jam, Tim Kitzrow, who only received $900 for his indelible contribution to video game history, had a number of improvised lines ready, but Boomshakalaka was not one of them. That honor goes to a member of the NBA Jam design team named John Carlton.

“I had just heard the song ‘I Want To Take You Higher,’” Carlton explains on Continuously“The sequence where they say ‘Boom laka-laka’; I just misquoted it and said Boomshakalaka.”

Little did anyone know that the now ubiquitous word would one day become a permanent part of pop culture, all because of a misquoted line from a Sly and the Family Stone song.

“Crazy how this came together, man,” said Kitzrow. “A gift from the gaming gods on this day.”

Episode 3 of Non-Stop: The True Story of Basketball (“NBA Jam”) is now streaming on the Vice TV website.