Not suprisingly, the coolest names in the NBA are all international. These are in no particular order, because it's just too difficult to put one ahead of the other. Also notice that all these names end in a vowel. Thabo Sefolosha - This might be my favorite name in the NBA. It just rolls off the tongue so beautifully...Thhhhhabo Zarko Cabarkapa - Any first name that will get you more than fifty points on a triple word score in Scrabble automatically counts as a cool name Zaza Pachulia - Similar to "Zarko", any name with more than one "Z" in it automatically counts as cool. Nene - Most players attain one name status in basketball by working hard and dominating the sport (Michael, Magic, Larry, Kareem, Wilt). This dude goes out and legally changes his name to one word! That takes some cajones gigantes, right there. Fabricio Oberto - If you went into a bar and told a chick, "Hi, I'm Fabricio Oberto", you would get laid that night, guaranteed!
Primoz Brezec sounds like some kind of anti-depressent. Luther Head Potapenko Beno Udrih, anyone? Yakhouba Diawara Linas Kleiza NENE and my personal favorite, Dwyane. I love that spelling.
Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers has an NBA blog about the coolest names ever: i remember once in the '80s when mike smrek was on the lakers and detlef schrempf was on the supersonics and smrek was guarding schrempf chickie was going crazy calling the game "its schrempf on smrek! i mean shcrmrek on smrempf! smrek blocks smrek's shot! SCHMREKALMPF! and so on greatest basketball names of all time: world b free sedale threatt tayshaun prince latrell sprewell downtown freddie brown moochie norris mookie blaylock spud webb cazzie russell ira newble manute bol muggsy bogues cherokee parks shandon anderson (it's the shand and that gets me) god shammgod and the incomparable smush parker He also said that Stromile Swift should be added to the list: http://www.nba.com/blog/blog43.html
To the topic: If you get a chance, listen to comedian Dan St. Paul's fake all-star game announcer. (Bob & Tom play it occasionally.) It's from a couple of years ago and he proposes that the all-star game be played against the all single-syllable name team versus the three or more name team. He does a great Marv Albert impersonation and has some real humorous calls. On the court is All-itch Squad (Vuvacic, Radmonivic, Stojakavic, Millicic, and Nesterovic) vs. the All-Jones team (Fred, Damon, Jumaine, Dahntay, and Popeye).
The first one that came to mind was God Shammgod. I remember ESPN did a story about the foreigners and their names, and how they went from Ordinary Joe Smith to Jaromir NestorivabdulXingMaoPolSinghackalack,
The coolest NBA name has to be Michael Jordan.. just because he's the man. And lets not forget our boy Yao. I'm naming my kid Yao Jordan.
Hawthorne Wingo -- Knicks Cazzie Russell -- Knicks Connie Hawkins -- Suns Bob "Butterbean" Love-- Bulls Chet "The Jet" Walker -- Bulls (what a forward tandem) John Q. Trapp -- Rockets Stu Lantz -- Rockets Wendell Ladner -- Colonels ( a 6' 5" PF) Henry Finkel -- Celtics Pete Maravich -- Jazz/Celtics
