The State Of The (Nickname) Game

When the Thunder face the Lakers tonight, they'll do so with all eyes on their 21 year-old star, Kevin Durant. Because with this year's playoffs, Durant's quickly becoming a megastar, crossing over to mainstream. And to punctuate his mainstream arrival, he needs a nickname...

Enter "Durantula."

That's from Ball Don't Lie, immortalizing a nickname that was coined by Rob Mahoney during a guest spot on The Basketball Jones. And seriously: could it get any more perfect than "Durantula"? He's got so much length you'd think he's got eight limbs, and he's f—ing deadly. That's Kevin Durant.

And you know what's awesome? It's all a product of the internet. As recently as five years ago, we were stuck in a creative vacuum where most of the more logical nicknames had been used on players from the past, and were just smacking names on players based on their initials and jersey number.

"KG."

"GP."

"T-Mac."

"D-Wade."

"J-Kidd."

"CP3."

Like, seriously? It's not that these nicknames were terrible, but these are such singular talents... They deserve awesome nicknames. And none more than Durant.

"Durantula."

Now, thanks in large to the rise of blogs, Kevin Durant's got a kickass nickname, and photoshops to match. You may think it's stupid, but the grassroots obsession with "Durantula" will ultimately crossover to the mainstream, and it'll catch on with the whole world. None of this "KD35" garbage. We can do better, and this time, we did. So thanks to Skeets, Rob, and the rest of the internet, for saving the nickname game, one photoshop-at-a-time.

(The ultimate Durantula poster, via Dan Wimann)