D-Hulk

Unfortunately, today's NBA just isn't what it used to be. Remember the good old days when E-John, MJ23, HO34, L-Bird, and Drex used to lace up and unleash their collective fury? No? Well, while I don't think the current slate of B-ballers have reached the haloed days of the Magic - Bird years (which, coincidentally are being celebrated a lot right now) or the late nineties, they are nothing to sneeze at. The sheer athleticism and talent of the players is, however, only one measure of the health of American Basketball. Another, arguably more important, metric is the excitement and creativity that fans and those who cover it bring to the sport. This cannot be easily measured. Some argue that the sport today is unhealthy and in decline. They see evidence of this everywhere, arguing that each year's slam dunk contest represents a new historic nadir, a dereliction of formerly held duties to entertain creatively while having fun. I don't know about all that. But speaking of (or linking to) the former half-man, half-amazing, how terrible have the NBA's nicknames gotten recently? King James aside, we've got D-Wade, CP3, Mello, CB4, KB-24, T-Mac, Booze, Big Z, AP, JO, J-Kidd, EJ, DJ, JJ, D-Fish, K-Love, AP, TP, J-Will, many other really shitty ones, and D-Will. This is definitely one place in which creativity and enthusiasm have been shamefully lacking among fans and professionals alike. I don't have too much more to say on the subject except to plead with you to join this blog in using nicknames that reflect the players' actual personalities. Deron Williams is D-Hulk to us. Why? He's built like the hulk, low to the ground (relatively, for an NBA player), muscly, the Jazz look good in green, and most importantly, he gets mad and turns into an awesomely destructive force of nature, an angry superhero.

We promise to invent good nicknames for players as they earn them. Please join us. If you get this blog one gift for Easter make it forgetting how to acronymize players names with jersey numbers. Try to look into their basketball souls and let their true character dictate how you refer to them. Failing that, however, you can use this or some similar website while you work on your naming skills. If you get us two things for Easter, we could really use some tickets to the finals.