Photo Credit: AP Photo
Nicknames For NBA Stars In China Are Savage
This season, the NBA has been growing for yet another year. Not only in the U.S, but also globally. Especially in China, the NBA has become a marquee player in the sports industry, and fans over there have created their own nicknames for some players.
Nick Kapur put together a Twitter thread covering these Chinese nicknames. Some of them are funny, some of the a bit strange and some of the are straight savage.
A thread of Chinese internet nicknames for NBA players.
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.
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Lebron James – 小皇帝 "The Little Emperor"
A play on the English "King James" that is also a slang term for a "spoiled only child" under China's "One Child Policy"
Used more when Lebron was young but now mostly by Lebron haters. His fans prefer 詹皇 (Zhan Wang or "King James").
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Giannis Antetokounmpo – 字母哥 "Letters Bro"
Because his last name has…so…many…letters!
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Steph Curry – 库昊 "fucks the sky"
This is an extremely elaborate pun. One of Curry's phonetic names is 库里 (ku li) and the second character is a combination of the characters 日 ("sun") and 土 ("ground"). But 日 is also slang for "fuck." 1/3
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Manu Ginobili – 妖刀 "The Demon Blade"
Perhaps the coolest nickname of them all, Ginobili earned this moniker for his ability to slash to the hoop using tricky footwork like the Eurostep.
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Manu Ginobili – 妖刀 "The Demon Blade"
Perhaps the coolest nickname of them all, Ginobili earned this moniker for his ability to slash to the hoop using tricky footwork like the Eurostep.
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Carmelo Anthony – 甜瓜 "Melon"
Because his English nickname "Melo" sounds like the English word "melon" which they then translated into Chinese (pronounced tian gua).
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Charles Barkley – 飞猪 "The Flying Pig"
Self-explanatory.
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Shaquille O'Neal – 大鲨鱼 "The Giant Shark"
Derives from the fact that the first sound in the Chinese word for "shark" (shayu) sounds like the first sound in "Shaquille."
Toward the end of his career, he was frequently called "O'Fat" (奥胖) – a play on "O'Neal."
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Scottie Pippen – 天下第二人 "Second Best Under Heaven"
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
Michael Jordon – 帮主 "Gang Boss"
Jordan's ordinary name in Chinese is 乔丹 (qiao dan), but Qiao is also the surname of Qiao Feng, the leader of the "Beggars' Sect" in popular wuxia martial arts novels, often known simply as "Gang Boss Qiao" (乔帮主).
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
However, "Dr. J" did get turned into J博士 ("J, Ph.D."), and Steve Francis's nickname "The Franchise" was badly translated into 特权 ("Special Rights").
— Nick Kapur (@nick_kapur) May 7, 2018
h/t USA TODAY’s FTW
