Chinese nicknames in NBA

Chinese enjoy the NBA very much, and each NBA superstar has a huge group of fans, they came up with a lot of Chinese nicknames for their idols which are pretty interesting.

Klay Thompson – 佛祖(fó zǔ )

“The Buddha”

Because his very short curly hair reminds Chinese people of the Buddha’s hairstyle in traditional Chinese art and fans admire his mighty 3-point shooting so much that they think he is a savior like Buddha.

Lebron James – 小皇帝(xiǎo huáng dì )

“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”).

Kobe Bryant – 蜗壳(wō ké )

“Snail Shell”

Kobe is “Snail Shell” because it rhymes with 我科（wǒ kē） “My [guy] Kobe.” When he was young they called him 小飞侠xiǎo fēi xiá  or “Peter Pan” (literally “Little Flying Warrior”) and at the end he became 唠嗑 (“Chatterbox, Gossip”), which rhymes with 老科（lǎo kē ） “Old Kobe.”

Shaquille O’Neal – 大鲨鱼（dà shā yú）

“The Giant Shark”

Derives from the fact that the first sound in the Chinese word for “shark” (shā yú) sounds like the first sound in “Shaquille.”

Toward the end of his career, he was frequently called “O’Fat” (奥胖 ào pàng ) – a play on “O’Neal.”

Michael Jordon – 帮主(bāng zhǔ )

“Gang Boss”

Jordan’s ordinary name in Chinese is 乔丹 (qiáo dān), 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).

Not all nicknames are nice and cool, some of them are mean…….

Like Charles Barkley – 飞猪（fēi zhū） “The Flying Pig”

Anthony Davis – 浓眉哥（nóng méi gē） “The Thick Brow Bro”

Tristan Thompson – 八贤王（bā xián wáng） “The King of Eights”(Thompson held out of training camp in 2015 and received a contract worth more than 80 million, despite averaging only 8 points and 8 rebounds in 2014-2015.)

There are still a lot of interesting Chinese nicknames in NBA, try to learn some Chinese and understand them.