Just call me “Standing Around Mamba” (站曼巴)
May 11, 2018 8:15 AM Subscribe
Nick Kapur, a professor of East Asian history, explains the Chinese nicknames for some of the most prominent players left in the NBA playoffs. King of the Crabs, Steph Skyfucker, Soup God, Dregs of the Earth, and more different riffs on Kobe Bryant calling himself Black Mamba than you thought possible await.
A similar nickname is “Pi Mamba” (π曼巴), suggesting his face is such a perfect circle it can be used to accurately calculate the value of pi.
This is glorious.
posted by bassooner at 8:40 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
This is glorious.
posted by bassooner at 8:40 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
fwiw this phenomenon also emerged in the chinese gymternet (artistic gymnastics community) - tieba is a wildly inventive place.
posted by ahundredjarsofsky at 8:43 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by ahundredjarsofsky at 8:43 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
Jesus, I hadn't even thought of the visual pun potential of a language like Chinese.
I only studied Chinese for a very short time, but this was one of my favorite things about it. I'm loving this article.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:23 AM on May 11, 2018
I only studied Chinese for a very short time, but this was one of my favorite things about it. I'm loving this article.
posted by showbiz_liz at 9:23 AM on May 11, 2018
It's probably assumed as a double entendre but I assumed the Steph Skyfucker name is because he takes shots like this.
posted by mcmile at 9:49 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
posted by mcmile at 9:49 AM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
I do admire foreign fans who are willing to call out the NBA for it support of international travel by nick naming Lebron "Six Steps".
posted by srboisvert at 12:14 PM on May 11, 2018
posted by srboisvert at 12:14 PM on May 11, 2018
I don't really know from basketball, but "The Psychotic Blade" is definitely an apt nickname for Mario Balotelli.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:43 PM on May 11, 2018
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:43 PM on May 11, 2018
I saw this earlier (on twitter) and...didn't like his etymology of 里 (li). (IANA Sinologist/Linguist but) I had thought it was formed from field (田, tián) and earth (土, tǔ) (though dust, clay, "local" may be a better fit?) and ... on reading the article, it seems that twitter is either 1) shit for nuanced items since he's able to explain it better on a proper web page or 2) makes it too easy to vomit up hot-takes of poorly researched ideas.
Makes note to reinstate his general ban on visiting twitter.
(Using Twitter: " 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"). "
Using actual sentences, plus time™: "However some Chinese netizens with dirty minds noticed that the second character, 里, seemed to depict the character for the earth (土) extending upward to sexually penetrate the character for the sun (日)."
I had some other places to go with this comment but not really relevant now...I probably should have just not posted.
posted by MikeKD at 1:58 PM on May 11, 2018
Makes note to reinstate his general ban on visiting twitter.
(Using Twitter: " 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"). "
Using actual sentences, plus time™: "However some Chinese netizens with dirty minds noticed that the second character, 里, seemed to depict the character for the earth (土) extending upward to sexually penetrate the character for the sun (日)."
I had some other places to go with this comment but not really relevant now...I probably should have just not posted.
posted by MikeKD at 1:58 PM on May 11, 2018
A similar nickname is “Pi Mamba”
It's time to play...
Chinese Basketball Nickname or Metal Gear Solid Character?
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:58 PM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
It's time to play...
Chinese Basketball Nickname or Metal Gear Solid Character?
posted by Strange Interlude at 1:58 PM on May 11, 2018 [2 favorites]
You know, most of these are just mildly interesting. In recent years there has been a lot, a lot of talk comparing 90's basketball to today's era. Much of it probably generated from the ascent of Lebron James into a place where he was good enough and had enough accolades to be compared to Michael Jordan, who is widely consider one of, if not the greatest basketball player ever.
So last week it hit me. Today's nicknames are terrible compared to back then. I thought of the nicknames for Blake Griffin, KD, Chris Paul, James Harden, Kyrie, Demar Derozan, Steph, and Anthony Davis. The best among those that people actually use, are Chef Curry, Uncle Drew, The Beard, and The Brow. You have some of the unofficialish nicknames like "Hoodie Melo", and "Brodie" for Russell Westbrook. In the past month or so, Boston's Terry Rozier's "Scary Terry" nickname has gotten spread around. But aside from the occasional "Manimal" and "Greek Freak", most of these are pretty weak.
Those can't touch nicknames like Air Jordan, Magic Johnson, the Round Mound of Rebound. Thunder Dan. The Admiral, Shaq Diesel, The Glove, Larry Legend, Reign Man, Zeke, The Worm, etc.
And as mentioned in the piece, a lot of players don't even have anything aside from their names and numbers: CP3, IT3, PG3, D12. Others are reduced to their initials: KAT, KCP. And how do players like Kemba Walker, Victor Oladipo, and Blake Griffin have no real, known nicknames, while Dwyane Wade has Wade County, The Flash, and Father Prime, and Lebron has King James and an infinite number of variations of his first name, as nicknames (LeBronto being the most recent popular one, as the tv announcer Mark Jones renamed the city of Toronto, as if Lebron owns it)?
So it'll be interesting to see if any of these names drifts into the game in the obvious nickname vacuum I've just outlined. If you're looking to pinpoint the precise moment things went downhill, don't worry, I've got you covered. It was Kenny Smith dubbing Shawn Marion "The Matrix" in, of course, the last few months of 1999.
posted by cashman at 3:29 PM on May 11, 2018
So last week it hit me. Today's nicknames are terrible compared to back then. I thought of the nicknames for Blake Griffin, KD, Chris Paul, James Harden, Kyrie, Demar Derozan, Steph, and Anthony Davis. The best among those that people actually use, are Chef Curry, Uncle Drew, The Beard, and The Brow. You have some of the unofficialish nicknames like "Hoodie Melo", and "Brodie" for Russell Westbrook. In the past month or so, Boston's Terry Rozier's "Scary Terry" nickname has gotten spread around. But aside from the occasional "Manimal" and "Greek Freak", most of these are pretty weak.
Those can't touch nicknames like Air Jordan, Magic Johnson, the Round Mound of Rebound. Thunder Dan. The Admiral, Shaq Diesel, The Glove, Larry Legend, Reign Man, Zeke, The Worm, etc.
And as mentioned in the piece, a lot of players don't even have anything aside from their names and numbers: CP3, IT3, PG3, D12. Others are reduced to their initials: KAT, KCP. And how do players like Kemba Walker, Victor Oladipo, and Blake Griffin have no real, known nicknames, while Dwyane Wade has Wade County, The Flash, and Father Prime, and Lebron has King James and an infinite number of variations of his first name, as nicknames (LeBronto being the most recent popular one, as the tv announcer Mark Jones renamed the city of Toronto, as if Lebron owns it)?
So it'll be interesting to see if any of these names drifts into the game in the obvious nickname vacuum I've just outlined. If you're looking to pinpoint the precise moment things went downhill, don't worry, I've got you covered. It was Kenny Smith dubbing Shawn Marion "The Matrix" in, of course, the last few months of 1999.
posted by cashman at 3:29 PM on May 11, 2018
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posted by scruffy-looking nerfherder at 8:31 AM on May 11, 2018 [1 favorite]