The Nickname Project Drowns

Nicknames used to be earned. Furthermore, they were bstowed by one’s peers. Now everybody and his pet iguana seem to be competeing to see who can come up with the newest nickname for someone. Here at BE we have multiple nicknames assigned to players, some of which have upwards of half a dozen. It’s as if people think they derive some sort of coolness from calling another person by a name they’ve madeup. That’s sad, when you think about it.

They are also a sign of laziness. People too lazy to type out a person’s name. I can understand the temptation to use KP instead of typing out Kevin Pritchard every time you refer to him. The accepted practice for using abbreviations is to use the term once and then the abbreviation thereafter. But to each their own.

Nothing you guys come up for LaMarcus will beat “Judge Dridge.” This was over before it started.

Randy California was the stage name of a brilliant young guitarist, one of the founders of the band Spirit, which put out several brilliant albums in the late ‘60s and early ’70s.
I always wondered how he got his name. well, I finally looked him up on Wikipedia and here is what I learned: He was given the name Randy California by none other than Jimi Hendrix. at the tender age of 15 he played in Hendrix’s band. this was before Hendrix became popular. there was another guy named Randy in the band too. so Hendrix called one of them Randy Texas and the other one Randy California. the name stuck and became his stage name. I don’t know what happened to Randy Texas.
anyway, I always thought the name was really dorky. the idea that someone would name himself “Randy California” seemed ridiculously egocentric as well as idiotic. but then when I found out he was given the name by Jimi Hendrix I immediately changed my mind. now I think it’s a great name, not necessarily because Hendrix came up with it but because Randy himself did not. also because the motive was so prosaic.
the lesson in all this is that the greatness of a nickname depends in part on its origins. I think one of the basic rules is that a player cannot choose his own nickname. it’s cool if the player embraces it, but not if he coined it himself.
btw, Spirit’s best album, their masterpiece, is The Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus.

But in essence, I just like call them by first or last name.

They just happen. I hate all of this thought into nicknames. I have a friend that we call Chewy. Not because he looks or sounds like Chewbacca but because he beat some one up over a Chewy Granola Bar. See nicknames just happen. Anyone ever seen Slackers there is a guy that calls himself Cool Ethan. No on else called him that he just made it up on his own. That is kinda what I feel like we are doing with this force every player to have a nickname. Some will have one some won’t. Besides if you just ride the pine your whole career you aren’t worthy of a nickname.