The greatest NBA nicknames of all time

One of the NBA’s original heat check scoring guards, Lloyd B. Free, had such a memorable nickname – “World B. Free” – that he legally changed his first name to “World”. Free was apparently given the nickname by a friend for his ability to bury deep shots from “around the world”. With his rainbow shot, huge vertical and flair for scoring, Free was one of the NBA’s most entertaining players from 1977 to 1986, when he averaged 24.7 PPG, including a 30.2 PPG season in 1979-80. Ironically, despite his nickname, Free rarely scored from behind the three-point line (it wasn’t even introduced until his fifth season), never averaging more than 1.0 made three-pointers per game. 

Rafer Alston was the rare streetball player who was actually good enough (and disciplined enough) to make the NBA. His nickname, made famous from one of the original And-1 mixtapes, was elite: “Skip 2 My Lou”. Alston had every move imaginable off the dribble as well as some serious flair, but he smartly dialed that down for the most part during NBA play. In fact, some of his most productive seasons during his 11-year career were for two of the biggest disciplinarian coaches in the league – the Van Gundy brothers – in Houston and Orlando. 

Jerry West has two awesome nicknames: “Mr. Clutch” and “The Logo”. I prefer the latter because there are probably a whole bunch of stats supporting another player(s) more deserving of the “Mr. Clutch” moniker. Plus, “The Logo” is a next-level nickname in that you need to know which player the NBA Logo is modeled after, which isn’t common knowledge to everyone. West is famously the only player to ever win a Finals MVP on the losing team.

Everything about Michael Jordan was always the coolest thing ever. So, it should come as no surprise that he had some of the coolest nicknames ever: simply “Mike”, “MJ”, and “His Airness”. ” However, his best nickname was “Air Jordan” because that’s where he spent most of his time – in the air. Jordan was a different kind of athlete than the NBA had ever seen when he burst onto the scene in the mid-80s. He could seemingly float through the air, hang up there until mere mortals returned to earth, and then hit shots or acrobatic dunks and layups. His signature sneakers – the best-selling basketball shoes in history – are also called “Air Jordans”. 

Vince Carter is the greatest dunker in NBA history and one of the best athletes in league history. Thus, he accumulated a litany of nicknames throughout his career – “Vinsanity”, “Air Canada”, “Half-Man/Half-Amazing.” Vinsanity was probably the most commonly used, which wasn’t surprising as most of what he did from an athletic standpoint was absolute insanity – including playing an NBA record 22 seasons.

David Robinson’s nickname, “The Admiral”, was perfect. Robinson famously grew from 6-foot-6 to 7-foot-1 while enrolled at the Naval Academy, which changed his life trajectory from being a solid college basketball player to being the best player in college basketball and, later, an NBA MVP, 10-time All-NBA selection, two-time champion and Hall of Famer. He is easily the most famous athlete from Navy, so “The Admiral”, a commander of a naval squadron, made perfect sense.

Like all of the pantheon players, LeBron James has a ton of nicknames: “The Chosen One” (which was tatted on his back as a teenager), “The Akron Hammer”, and, his most famous, “King James”. LeBron’s reign over the NBA has been absurdly long and uniquely consistent – he averaged 28.9 PPG, 8.3 RPG and 6.8 APG in this, his 20th season. He’s also the NBA’s all-time leading scorer, which is one of the many records he holds. If you’re ever looking for a laugh, go and toggle through the all-time playoff leaders on NBA.com. LeBron is the leader, or at least right near of the top, of every category imaginable – even ones you would never associate with him like three-pointers made (he’s third behind the Splash Brothers). 

Karl Malone was given the nickname, “The Mailman”, because “he always delivered”. He sure did. In fact, from 1987 to 2003, he played in basically every single game and averaged 26 PPG and 10.3 RPG while playing 37.7 MPG. Insane consistency. The ironic part of his nickname was that Scottie Pippen famously told him “Mailman doesn’t deliver on Sundays” right before Malone was about to shoot the go-ahead free throws in Game 1 of the 1997 Finals. Malone proceeded to brick both free throws and Michael Jordan subsequently buried a shot at the buzzer to break a tie and win the game.

Some of you reading this probably didn’t even know what “Magic” Johnson’s actual first name was – that’s how good his nickname was. His nickname explained everything you needed to about him both on and off the court. On the court, he did things in the open court that nobody had every seen before, especially from someone his size (6-foot-9 point guard). Off the court, he was the life of the party, and the biggest personality in every room he walked into. 

Larry Bird actually had two incredible nicknames. The first, “Larry Legend”, perfectly described his all-time great career and his standing with Boston sports fans. The second, “The Hick from French Lick”, aptly described where he grew up and the type of off-the-court personality he had. Bird’s legendary career concluded earlier that it should have due to a back injury, but not before he had time to win three MVPs (all consecutively), three championships and two Finals MVPs.

A classic. Julius Erving’s nickname, “Dr. J”, was one of basketball’s first iconic nicknames. One of the coolest part about Dr. J – and basically everything he did was cool – was that he a bit of a folk hero early in his career because he played in the perpetually flirting with bankruptcy American Basketball Association for the first five years of his career before the ABA merged into the NBA. The ABA didn’t have the same type of television exposure or marketing as the NBA, so you basically had to see Erving in person to witness his greatness early on.

The “Black Mamba” nickname was a little lame initially because Kobe Bryant gave it to himself. But after a while, it was too fitting not to embrace. His work ethic was legendary and his precision – whether it was his footwork, moves, attacking angles, etc. – was, indeed, as sudden and effective as his deadly snake moniker would suggest. I’d be remiss to also not bring up the Black Mamba’s father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, who had a great nickname and a solid NBA career in the 70s-80s.

I used “Diesel”, but in all reality, Shaquille O’Neal had so many nicknames that were routinely associated with him that it was impossible to choose the best one. Heck, even “Shaq” is technically a nickname. Shaq had the habit of giving himself new hilarious/ridiculous nicknames every few years throughout his career like “The Big Aristotle”, “Superman”, “Shaq Daddy”, and “The Big Shamrock”. 

If you thought Shaq’s nicknames were a lot, you should get a load of Darryl Dawkins basketball reference page. His most famous was “Chocolate Thunder”, but here’s a list of the rest:

Double D, Dawk, Dr. Dunk, Sir Slam, Zandokan the Mad Dunker, Dunk You Very Much, Candy Slam, Sweet D, Big Dawk, Master of Disaster, Squawkin’ Dawkin, Double D Dunk, Sir Dunk, Dunk It, Pure Pleasure, Cool Breeze, Dr. Jam, Demon of Destin.

Incredible! Dawkins, as you can probably tell, was an absolute character, loved breaking backboards with thunderous dunks, and claimed to be an alien from Planet Lovetron.

Blessed with a great sports name to begin with, Moses Malone wasn’t typically referred to by his nickname, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t a perfect nickname. The “Chairman of the Boards” absolutely dominated the boards during his career. He ranks fifth all-time in total rebounds and led the league in rebounding six times. He’s also the NBA’s all-time leading offensive rebounder and averaged over five offensive rebounds per game in nine separate seasons, including two seasons with seven of more offensive boards per game!!

Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon’s route to the NBA might as well have come from a dream. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, he grew up playing soccer and didn’t even start playing basketball until he was 15 years old. A half dozen years later, he was the first pick of an NBA Draft that had Michael Jordan in it. Olajuwon’s game was dream-like too as he retained the quickness and footwork of a soccer player, which allowed him to become one of the NBA’s greatest defensive players (he’s the NBA’s career leader in blocks) and had every post-move imaginable…and then some.

Hakeem’s college and NBA teammate, Clyde “The Glide” Drexler, had a smooth nickname that resembled his smooth game. When you watched him move around the court, it did look like he was just gliding, especially when he’d do his signature head-down dribble and one-handed running jam in the open court. Drexler and Olajuwon were also part of the coolest college team nickname ever: Phi Slama Jama, the Houston Cougars’ dunking fraternity.

Oddly, Kevin Durant has scoffed off most of his media and fan-driven nicknames, and instead, tried to promote himself as “The Servant”. That one is kind of weird and doesn’t really make me think “Kevin Durant” when I hear it. A couple of his other ones do like “Slim Reaper”, “Durantula” and, heck, even “Easy Money Sniper” are much more applicable. Personally, “Slim Reaper” is the best of the bunch because of the way he kills opponents with cold-blooded shots all over the court.

The coldest nickname in NBA history belongs to Spurs’ Hall of Famer, George “Iceman” Gervin. The four-time scoring champion was apparently given him nickname because he’d barely sweat during games while his opponents were huffing and puffing trying to hang with him. Gervin was an excellent athlete, whose signature move was a silky-smooth finger roll layup. Gervin averaged 25.1 PPG for his career.

Allen Iverson’s nickname, “The Answer”, was an all-timer. It apparently came from a friend who said that the NBA would need someone to carry the league after the Magic Johnson-Larry Bird-Michael Jordan era coming to an end in the near future. In other words, the league needed an answer, “The Answer”. Shortly thereafter, Iverson and his friend went to a tattoo shop and got “The Answer” on his arm. For whatever reason, that nickname was perfect when you watched the brash, 165-pound guard who definitely “had that dog in him” compete and outplay players who were often a foot and 100 pounds bigger than him.

Gary “The Glove” Payton was an elite two-way point guard, but his defense was what earned him his nickname. Payton’s was a big, 6-foot-4, rangy point guard who routinely shut down opponent’s point guards and shooting guards – all while talking an immense amount of trash. After locking up Suns’ star guard Kevin Johnson in a big game, Payton’s cousin called him and told him he was locking up his opponents like a baseball glove holding a ball. Thereafter, he was “The Glove.”

The origin of Ray Allen’s nickname was the Spike Lee joint, “He Got Game”. If you haven’t seen the movie – what are you doing? – Allen plays a superstar high school prospect named Jesus Shuttlesworth from New York City who is wrestling with the decision to turn pro out of high school or go to “Big State University”. His father, played by Denzel Washington, is released from prison to try to recruit his son, whom he has a tumultuous past with, to Big State. It’s a good sports movie and Allen is surprisingly competent as an actor. Though Allen wasn’t quite the same level of prospect as the fictional Shuttlesworth, he certainly had a Shuttlesworth-caliber, Hall of Fame NBA career.

Dominique Wilkins’ nickname, the “Human Highlight Film”, was such an apt nickname that it actually took away from how great of an overall player he was during his career. Wilkins, who scored 26,668 career points and made seven All-NBA teams, was the NBA’s first player to routinely pull off dunk contest-worthy dunks in games. He was a powerful dunker – on the same level as Shawn Kemp, LeBron James and Zion Williamson.

Paul Pierce, aka “The Truth”, was one of those players that I never really liked…but I couldn’t help but respect him. He wasn’t super athletic, he never appeared to be in great shape, and his jump shot looked anything but effortless. But then, you’d look up at the box score and he’d have 20-something points, half a dozen rebounds, a couple of assists, and two clutch plays that helped his team win a close game. He was a competitor who always seemed to rise to the occasion – often against legendary foes who were clearly better than him, like LeBron and Kobe. Simply put, he was “The Truth”.

One of the few modern nicknames on this list is Giannis Antetokounmpo’s “Greek Freak”. Giannis is one of the freakiest athletes to ever walk the planet. When he was drafted as an 18-year-old by the Milwaukee Bucks, he was a skinny 6-foot-9 with a 7-foot-3 wingspan. Then, he grew. A lot. He’s now easily 7-foot and probably has an even longer wingspan than before (the NBA doesn’t require teams to report official wingspan measurements), and is a muscular 242 pounds. Oh, and he’s one of the most unstoppable athletes the NBA has ever seen. The only part of the nickname that is somewhat inapt, is the “Greek” part as he is technically Nigerian but grew up in a very impoverished part of Greece. 

Like his mentor, Moses Malone, Charles Barkley didn’t really need a nickname…but he had a great one: the “Round Mound of Rebound”. When you watch Barkley (“Chuck”) on TV now, it’s difficult to comprehend what a unique athlete and basketball player he was during his prime. He was basically Zion Williamson before Zion Williamson was even born – an undersized but explosive power forward (listed at 6-foot-6, but probably smaller than that) who used his massive rear end and 252-pound frame to move even the biggest big men around like they were jayvee players. He led the league in rebounding one year and averaged at least 10.1 RPG in his final 15 seasons as a pro. 

In a similar vein to the way Ray Allen got his nickname, Kyrie Irving’s most famous nickname comes from an incredible series of Pepsi commercials where Irving dressed as an old man called “Uncle Drew” and then went out and schooled unsuspecting opponents in a street ball game. The commercial and character were so good that there was even an Uncle Drew movie. Kyrie’s career has been a roller coaster since then, but he also picked up another hilarious nickname along the way after his “flat earth” theory nonsense: World B. Flat.

“Pistole Pete” Maravich’s name was in the news recently because Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis nearly broke his college basketball scoring record. Ultimately, Davis came up short. However, it took Davis five full seasons (he got an extra COVID year) to sniff Maravich’s record, which was accomplished in only three seasons. That’s right – Maravich averaged 44.2 PPG at LSU from 1967-68 to 1969-70. He was a basketball prodigy and savant – and earned his nickname from back in his high school days where he shot the ball from his hip due to his slight frame (there’s a good chance he was playing with kids much older than him at the time). Maravich was the original dribbling fundamentals guy – he called it “basketball homework.” Sadly, despite having great numbers in the ABA and NBA – good enough to make the Hall of Fame – Maravich’s professional career was hampered by bad luck, bad teams, and, sadly, health issues.

Jason “White Chocolate” Williams was a solid point guard, but an all-time entertainer, especially during his first three seasons with the Kings. Williams’ court awareness, dribbling and passing ability was elite, and he loved to add in some street ball style flair. Unfortunately for Williams, the Kings were ready to contend earlier that he was ready to be the steady point guard presence they needed in the early 2000s, so he was dealt to the rebuilding Memphis Grizzlies for Mike Bibby after his third season and remained in basketball obscurity until finding his way to the Miami Heat in his early-30s. 

One of the few role players on this list, Robert Horry, aka “Big Shot Bob”, was everything a team could ever ask for out of a rotation player. Horry was an athletic, 6-foot-10 forward who was versatile on both ends of the court and was willing to do the little things as a role player on great teams instead of trying to be a good player on a bad team. This, of course, put him in the position to hit numerous clutch playoff shots throughout his career. Horry won seven championships – two with the Rockets; three with the Lakers; and two with the Spurs – and played a pivotal role in every one of them.