Basketball Nicknames

It’s hard to think of a modern NBA player with a great nickname, but that was not always the case. It wasn’t uncommon to see a Butch, Sonny or Junior on a roster back in the day. It was a way of showing off an athlete’s uniqueness and personality, as well as a fun way to communicate his game.

Sometimes, the best nicknames are the ones bestowed upon players by other people. They’re usually short and to the point, like a Black Mamba or a Swaggy P. Other times they tap into popular culture, like Ray Allen’s Jesus Shuttlesworth in a movie or interns attaching latex old-guy makeup to Kyrie Irving until he looked like Uncle Drew for Pepsi commercials.

There’s also the kind of nickname that is more than a simple abbreviation, but more of a rhyme or a poetic way of describing a player’s style. Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon, for instance, was known as the Dream because of his mellifluous footwork in the post and his ability to dunk like nobody else at the time.

The best of these kinds of nicknames really stick out, though. It’s not often that you hear somebody say, “I heard about this kid named Air Jordan from the Internet.” They probably have a picture of him on their refrigerator or something. The same goes for legendary dunkers like Vince Carter, who got a bunch of monikers that sounded like phrases – Vinsanity, Air Canada – that helped everyone know who they were talking about.