OKC Thunder: Genesis of player nicknames OK3, Brodie, and Chinese versions

OKC Thunder big three of Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony can add Chinese nicknames to their list of monikers.

Part of becoming a superstar in the NBA is getting your own shoe and nickname. Here at TI the team has been known to invent new ones. Depending on how the player performs those monikers can border on the positives “Beastbrook” or negatives “Playoff Plop”.

Rarely does an NBA player arrive to the league without a handle already. During the years of amateur ranks teammates tend to dub the player. Some players go the self anointing route. Shaquille O’Neal for example named himself each time he changed teams. While many of O’Neal’s self invented nicknames were far from cool, he did create solid names for others. Case in point “The Truth” O’Neal’s appointed nickname for Paul Pierce ranks among the best of all time.

Recently writer Nick Kapur served up a list of Chinese nicknames for NBA Players. I’ve linked his twitter thread below and two subsequent articles. One offers up some Chinese nicknames of NBA players and one is dedicated to the Conference Finalists.

In the interim, I dove into each of the Thunder players nicknames. For those interested in some of the Chinese names, check below for some of the best including logical, humorous and shade based nicknames. Enjoy.