Welcome to the Brew Hoop Night Shift. Every evening at 9:00pm (central time), this all-purpose thread goes up, and the comments section is where it’s going down. What Bucks news did we not cover? What topics do you want to break down further? Or is there something non-Bucks that you want to bounce off of one another? Even something non-basketball? This is the place.
Tonight’s (on) topic: NBA Player Nicknames in China
A thread of Chinese internet nicknames for NBA players.
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
China is crazy for the NBA, but official sources use boring phonetic transcriptions, failing to take advantage of Chinese characters having both sound and meaning. Chinese netizens have "improved" on these official names.
This is a great thread of how basketball fans in China view and think of players in the NBA.
Fittingly, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s nickname translates to “Letters bro” which requires no further explanation.
Other nicknames of note include Manu Ginobili being called, “The Demon Blade” which is such a great nickname. Towards the end of Shaquille O’Neal’s career he was getting roasted by fans as being referred to as, “O’Fat.” James Harden has probably my favorite nickname of the ones listed. He is known as, “The Mayor of Jingdezhen,” and the explanation is fantastic:
Jingdezhen is a town famous for making fragile porcelain, so “Son of Jingdezhen” (景德镇之子) is a term for an NBA flop artist. Harden is perceived to be the best at this “art,” so he gets to be the “mayor” of Floptown.
Tonight’s (off) topic:
Shout out to all the mommas out there. I disappointed my mom and only scraped together a 18/30 score.
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