Whatever happened to player nicknames??

[markinca]

Magic Johnson, Larry Legend, Dr. J, Air Jordan, Clyde the Glide, Hakeem the Dream, The Admiral, The Mailman, The Glove, etc etc etc

It seemed like in the 80s/90s all the great players had really cool nicknames that were extremely well-known.

Why don't we do that anymore?

I think the biggest nba stars that actually have somewhat of a cool-ish nickname and are well known these days are Lebron, Giannis, and _maybe_ Jokic.

EDIT: And just as a barometer for what I would consider 'well-known', if the nickname is mentioned in a player's intro paragraph on wikipedia, I would say that most definitely qualifies.

But what about the others?

James Harden ('The Beard'? I mean, is that really a nickname? He literally has a beard. Pretty weak.)

Anthony Davis ('The Brow'? Same thing as Harden... I mean, he has a unibrow. Weak.)

Kawhi Leonard (I guess 'The Claw' is ok, but do most fans actually know that nickname?)

and then you got a ton of players whose most famous nickname is just a shortening of their name, or their initials, like Kevin Durant, Damian Lillard, Chris Paul, Paul George, Karl-Anthony Towns, etc etc.

And then you've got players who as far as I know don't really have any sort of nickname at all, like Steph Curry (and no, I do not consider 'Steph' a nickname), Klay, Kyrie, Blake Griffin, Russ, Embiid, etc etc.

What happened? Why were there so many well-known nicknames back then and hardly any now?

[drobfan8]

KD has a bunch. Slim Reaper I like, he doesn't

Chef Curry

Dame Dolla

CP3

The Process

If only Fleer Ultra were around to run a Famous Nicknames set.

[hermanotarjeta]

Maybe Chris Berman-types are less prominent on espn?

Or, I think our society is getting too politically correct for nicknames.

Come on, mailman would never cut it today - you would piss off too many postal workers and they would go on strike or protest or something like that.

[zhukvlad]

The Breakfast Club Microwaved The Worm which was delivered by the Mailman across the atlantic ocean to The Pink Panther for dinner.

[zhukvlad]

Originally Posted by markinca

Kevin Durant - Durantula/Cupcake, Damian Lillard - DameTime, Chris Paul - CP3/The President, Paul George - PG13, Karl-Anthony Towns - KAT

Steph Curry - Splash Brother #1, Klay - Splash Brother #2, Kyrie - Uncle Drew, Blake Griffin - The Blakeshow, Russ - Mr. Triple Double, Embiid - The Process, etc etc.

What happened? are you even watching the games? or just remembering the past from your childhood?

[rman112]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Maybe Chris Berman-types are less prominent on espn?

Or, I think our society is getting too politically correct for nicknames.

Come on, mailman would never cut it today - you would piss off too many postal workers and they would go on strike or protest or something like that.

I can see the Twitter outrage now.

"Are you implying that all mailpersons have sexual relationships with 13 year olds? How dare you!"

[rman112]

I like going on basketball/baseball/football reference, and seeing nicknames listed that I've never even heard of. It happens often. I'm pretty sure they just make stuff up.

[rman112]

But you're right. Today's nicknames generally suck. Taking a guy's initials and adding their number isn't a nickname.

Also, who can forget The Answer?

[SK40]

RIP Tractor Traylor.

[thejazzcollector]

Greek Freak, Kristaps “The Unicorn” Porzingis, King James, Swipa the Fox...They’re still around.
Heck almost all the Jazz guys have nicknames that most the fan base calls them. They might just not be super well known around the league.
Donovan “Spida” Mitchell, Rudy “The Stifle Tower”, “Jinglin Joe” Ingles, “Mountain Mike” Conley, Bogey, Georges Niang aka “The Mini Van”.

[markinca]

Originally Posted by zhukvlad

What happened? are you even watching the games? or just remembering the past from your childhood?

I literally said in my original post that some players nicknames are just shortened versions of their real names or just their initials.... and you spit back those exact same nicknames.

Thank you for that contribution.

[markinca]

Originally Posted by brycelarson11

Greek Freak, Kristaps “The Unicorn” Porzingis, King James, Swipa the Fox...They’re still around.
Heck almost all the Jazz guys have nicknames that most the fan base calls them. They might just not be super well known around the league.
Donovan “Spida” Mitchell, Rudy “The Stifle Tower”, “Jinglin Joe” Ingles, “Mountain Mike” Conley, Bogey, Georges Niang aka “The Mini Van”.

The Stifle Tower is legitimately one of my favorite nicknames not just now but ever. it's perfect.

But of the other jazz players, I would bet that outside of mitchell, not even 50% of casual fans know those nicknames.

[thejazzcollector]

Originally Posted by markinca

The Stifle Tower is legitimately one of my favorite nicknames not just now but ever. it's perfect.

But of the other jazz players, I would bet that outside of mitchell, not even 50% of casual fans know those nicknames.

Agreed. Most probably don’t. But I’m just emphasizing how there’s still plenty out there.
Not to mention several old school stars didn’t really have common nicknames either - Ewing, Kareem, Bill Russell, Pippen, Stockton, McHale, Reggie Miller, Dirk, Isiah Thomas, Shawn Kemp...that’s just off the top of my head.
And then there’s like C-Webb and T-Mac but that’s seems like the same level as a PG13 or a CP3.

[markinca]

Originally Posted by brycelarson11

Agreed. Most probably don’t. But I’m just emphasizing how there’s still plenty out there.
Not to mention several old school stars didn’t really have common nicknames either - Ewing, Kareem, Bill Russell, Pippen, Stockton, Reggie Miller, Dirk, Isiah Thomas, Shawn Kemp...that’s just off the top of my head.
And then there’s like C-Webb and T-Mac but that’s seems like the same level as a PG13 or a CP3.

Players might have nicknames, but if most nba fans don't know them, I would say they don't really have those nicknames.

I remember Shawn Kemp had 'Reign Man', and Isiah had 'Zeke', both of which were pretty popular. As for the others, you're right, but a lot of them really weren't the exciting, dunking, highlight-reel types. Those types seemingly always had nicknames back then - 'Thunder' Dan Majerle, David 'Skywalker' Thompson, 'The Human Highlight Reel', 'Spud' Webb, and so on.

Like, I'm convinced modern-day highlight players like Russ, Blake, Lavine, and Aaron Gordon would absolutely have had some sort of cool nickname had they played back in the day.

[thejazzcollector]

Originally Posted by markinca

Players might have nicknames, but if most nba fans don't know them, I would say they don't really have those nicknames.

I remember Shawn Kemp had 'Reign Man', and Isiah had 'Zeke', both of which were pretty popular. As for the others, you're right, but a lot of them really weren't the exciting, highlight-reel types. Those types seemingly always had nicknames back then - 'Thunder' Dan Majerle, David 'Skywalker' Thompson, 'The Human Highlight Reel', and so on.

Like, I'm convinced modern-day highlight players like Steph, Russ, and Blake would absolutely have had some sort of cool nickname had they played back in the day.

Ah yes I should’ve remembered Zeke. Don’t think I’d heard Reign Man for Kemp before though.
Steph is 1/2 of the Splash Bros though which is probably the most famous duo nickname in recent memory, as well as Chef Curry.
And I’m not sure where it comes from but it seems like lots of people refer to Russ as “Brodie” (or Westbrick for the people that don’t like him lol) which kind of seems like the “Zeke” for Isiah. You’re probably right on Blake though.
Id also argue that Pippen and Kareem were pretty exciting players. Kinda surprised they don’t have nicknames.


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[Cubs_rock21]

I agree the nicknames based on appearances and not their game are pretty lame. King James is pretty much in line with the old school nicknames. I think i recently heard Donovan Mitchell was Spida? I had no idea on that lol.

[jwillgrails]

Originally Posted by hermanotarjeta

Maybe Chris Berman-types are less prominent on espn?

Or, I think our society is getting too politically correct for nicknames.

Come on, mailman would never cut it today - you would piss off too many postal workers and they would go on strike or protest or something like that.

"White Chocolate" was universally accepted for my boy, J-Will. Hard to see that name sticking nowadays.

[SK40]

Originally Posted by brycelarson11

Agreed. Most probably don’t. But I’m just emphasizing how there’s still plenty out there.
Not to mention several old school stars didn’t really have common nicknames either - Ewing, Kareem, Bill Russell, Pippen, Stockton, McHale, Reggie Miller, Dirk, Isiah Thomas, Shawn Kemp...that’s just off the top of my head.
And then there’s like C-Webb and T-Mac but that’s seems like the same level as a PG13 or a CP3.

The Reignman was most definitely a known nickname at the time.

[codered]

Lebron - king James
Giannis - Greek freak
Jokic - the joker
Doncic - wonder boy
Lilliard - dame dolla
Embiid - the process
Butler - jimmy buckets
Young - ice trae
Kawhi - the klaw
Mitchell - spida
Davis - the brow
Harden - the beard
Siakam - spicy P
Adebayo - Bam (it’s not his first name but an actually a nickname that stuck)

That’s just the all-star team

I have to agree with zhukvald, I don’t think you realize over half the players on the all-star team have pretty prominent nicknames that aren’t shorten versions of their names/initials. Even though you don’t like the brow or the beard they are still popular nicknames.

Edit: I was just gonna stick to the all-star team but you identified and didn’t realize some really popular ones, steph is called “chef curry or the chef”. I would classify “splash brothers” as nicknames for both him as klay (ask anyone who remotely watches basketball who the splash brothers are) and Kyrie has a uncle drew (a line of commercials and a movie)

[zhukvlad]

Originally Posted by markinca

...then you've got players who as far as I know don't really have any sort of nickname at all, like...Embiid, etc etc.

Originally Posted by markinca

Thank you for that contribution.

Originally Posted by markinca

I literally said in my original post...

"Thank you for that contribution"

If in a basketball forum with 30 teams in the NBA, you are not aware of his nickname...

[Rob 23]

Some of the nicknames over the years have been wack in my opinion, but none worse than:

"When Jordan entered the NBA in 1984, he was given the nickname “Captain Marvel” by Johnny “Red” Kerr, the color commentator for the Chicago Bulls. However, the nickname (fortunately) never stuck."

[Spacemanspif]

Originally Posted by markinca

Players might have nicknames, but if most nba fans don't know them, I would say they don't really have those nicknames.

I remember Shawn Kemp had 'Reign Man', and Isiah had 'Zeke', both of which were pretty popular. As for the others, you're right, but a lot of them really weren't the exciting, dunking, highlight-reel types. Those types seemingly always had nicknames back then - 'Thunder' Dan Majerle, David 'Skywalker' Thompson, 'The Human Highlight Reel', 'Spud' Webb, and so on.

Like, I'm convinced modern-day highlight players like Russ, Blake, Lavine, and Aaron Gordon would absolutely have had some sort of cool nickname had they played back in the day.

read: since I don't know players' nicknames, they don't have "cool" ones

While the guys with just initials as nicknames are lame, most players do have some form of nickname, and to real fans they're pretty widely known... even the semi-obscure players. Since the big name guys have been covered, here are some fun ones from some lesser known guys:

Half Man, Half Amazing (Vince Carter)
Boogie Cousins
Swipa the Fox (De'Aaron)
Wave Papi (Kelly Oubre Jr)
Spicy P (Siakam)
Young Bull (Sexton)
Scary Terry (Rozier)

[markinca]

Originally Posted by Spacemanspif

read: since I don't know players' nicknames, they don't have "cool" ones

If that's what you're 'reading', then you might need some work on reading comprehension. When did I ever make a claim like that?

It's not just that players have or don't have nicknames. It's that players no longer have nicknames that are 1) 'cool', as in unique (i.e. not just initials), AND 2) well-known.

Wave papi? Swipa? Young Bull? I would say these are hardly well-known. But then again, you'll probably 'read' into that that _I_ think they're not well-known so they're not well-known.

[markinca]

Originally Posted by codered

Kyrie has a uncle drew (a line of commercials and a movie)

Kyrie and Lillard I would hesitate to call those actual nicknames - they're just names of characters that they play. Isn't it similar to claiming that an actor's nickname is the name of one of the roles that they play?

[markinca]

And just to put out there a standard for what I would personally consider 'well-known', I would say that if the nickname is mentioned in their intro paragraph on wikipedia, then I'd say that would certainly qualify.

So just to take a look at some mentioned in this thread that I didn't mention in my original post:

Curry - chef - doesn't qualify (though it is mentioned later)
Doncic - wonder boy - doesn't qualify (though it is mentioned later)
Embiid - the process - qualifies (I just flat-out forgot about this one)
Butler - jimmy buckets - doesn't qualify
Young - ice trae - doesn't qualify
Mitchell - spida - doesn't qualify
Siakam - spicy P - qualifies (good one, I forgot about this)
Adebayo - Bam - qualifies (another good one, I totally forgot this wasn't his actual name lol)
Fox - swipa da fox - doesn't qualify
Oubre - wave papi - doesn't qualify
Sexton - young bull - doesn't qualify
Lillard - dame dolla - doesn't qualify
Irving - uncle drew - doesn't qualify

All the nicknames I mentioned in my original post qualify, except for Larry Legend - the one they mention in his intro paragraph is 'Hick from French Lick', but 'Larry Legend' is mentioned later on in the article.