Take A Look At The Best NBA Nicknames

Basketball Reference has also made room for something more artistic: nicknames, among an ocean of factual knowledge. The B-Ref monikers are now legendary on NBA Twitter. Most players have more than one stated nickname, with around half having more than one.

Take A Look At The Best NBA Nicknames

There are all the well-known ones, such as “The Beard” for James Harden and “King James” for LeBron James. The surprisingly straightforward ones are those like “Trez” for Montrezl Harrell and “KCP” for Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Some of the nicknames are merely simply the player’s given name; for example, Juancho Hernangómez goes by “Juancho.”

Next up is a particular favorite of mine: Nic Claxton is known as “The Slim Reaper,” whereas Kevin Durant, a far more well-known teammate, goes by the well-known moniker “Slim Reaper.”

I searched through each active player’s Basketball Reference page with the straightforward objective of identifying the top 25 nicknames in order to celebrate this wonderful union of my passion for the NBA and my ongoing addiction to the internet.

Lloyd B. Free, one of the NBA’s early heat check scoring guards, had such a distinctive nickname – “World B. Free” – that he officially changed his first name to “World”. A buddy allegedly gave Free the moniker because of his propensity to bury deep shots from “around the world.”

Lynch and the rest of the Basketball-Reference staff are always on the lookout for new nicknames to include in the site’s database. Lynch has combed through old NBA encyclopedias, almanacs, and publications in order to restore some of the earlier nicknames that had been lost to time.

Rafer Alston was a rare streetballer who was skilled enough (and disciplined enough) to make it to the NBA. His moniker, made popular by one of the earliest And-1 mixtapes, was “Skip 2 My Lou.” Alston had every move conceivable off the dribble, as well as some major flare, but he wisely toned it down during NBA play.

Many nicknames make it onto the site as a result of this procedure, even if they are not well recognized or used. For example, “World B. Flat” was put to Kyrie Irving’s profile two years ago as a tribute to World B. Free and a nod to his previous comments on conspiracy theories.

NBA broadcasts are yet another source of gold for the site’s database. Rajon Rondo got one of his nicknames from a Steve Smith piece on NBA TV.

The term “Black Mamba” was a little lame at first since Kobe Bryant gave it to himself. But after a while, it seemed too appropriate not to embrace. His work ethic was renowned, and his perfection – whether it was his footwork, movements, attacking angles, or anything – was as quick and lethal as his venomous snake reputation would imply.

In actuality, Shaquille O’Neal had so many nicknames linked with him that it was hard to pick the greatest one. Even the moniker “Shaq” is actually a nickname. Throughout his career, Shaq has a tendency of giving himself new hilarious/ridiculous nicknames every few years, such as “The Big Aristotle”, “Superman”, “Shaq Daddy”, and “The Big Shamrock”.

In other cases, players choose their own nicknames. Darryl Dawkins, a favorite of Lynch’s, went by nicknames ranging from “Chocolate Thunder” to “Zandokan the Mad Dunker.” Dawkins, who claimed to be from the planet Lovetron, is one of the site’s nickname leaders, with 19 monikers.

Surprisingly, Kevin Durant has dismissed most of his media and fan-generated nicknames in favor of promoting himself as “The Servant.” That one is odd, and I don’t immediately think “Kevin Durant” when I hear it. Some of his other ones, such as “Slim Reaper,” “Durantula,” and even “Easy Money Sniper,” are far more relevant. Personally, I believe “Slim Reaper” is the greatest of the lot due to the manner in which he dispatches opponents with cold-blooded shots all around the court.

The nickname sections on player pages can be amusing and goofy, but they also have a historical purpose, as does everything else on the site.

 

 

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