Weird Basketball Names (NBA)

A

• Forest Able (AKA “Frosty”)
• Pero Antic (once played for Lokomotiv Kuban)
• Quincy Acy
• Arron Afflalo
• Al Attles (also a successful manager)
• Martynas Andriuskevicius (7’2”)
• Giannis Antetokounmpo (“The Greek Freak”)
• Alaa Abdelnaby 

B

• Butch Beard (also a head coach)
• Wesley Bialosuknia (“The Mad Bomber”)
• Mookie Blaylock (also the original name of Pearl Jam)
• Butch Booker (real name Harold)
• Bob Boozer (Gold Medal winner)
• Ticky Burden (real name Luther)
• Vander Blue
• Rasual Butler
• Zelmo Beaty (“The Big Z”)
• Leandro Barbosa (“The Brazilian Blur”)
• Chauncey Billups (5-time All Star)
• Otis Birdsong 
• Brian Brunkhorst (“Bronk”)
• Bucky Bockhorn 
• Orbie Bowling ("Orb")
• Ruben Boumtje-Boumtje (pre-med major at Georgetown)
• Bismack Biyombo (siblings include Billy, Biska, Bikim, Bimeline, Bikelene, and Bimela)
• Uwe Blab 

C

• Demetrius Calip
• Bruno Caboclo (once played for the Ft. Wayne Mad Ants)
• Vonteego Cummings (middle name is Marfeek)
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (8th pick overall in 2013)
• Corky Calhoun (Penn grad)
• Cornelius Cash 
• Rastko Cvetkovic
• Zarko Cabarkapa
• Bob Cluggish
• Chubby Cox (Kobe Bryant’s uncle)

Bob Cluggish

D

• Dick Dickey (once played for the Anderson Packers)
• Dick Duckett
• Zabian Dowdell (once played for SLUC Nancy Basket)
• Dell Demps (current GM of the Pelicans)
• DeSagana Diop (speaks 5 languages, including Wolof)
• Predrag Drobnjak 
• Fennis Dembo (the last of 12 children, his first name is a play on the French finis)

E

• Cleanthony Early
• Festus Ezeli (full name is Ifeanyi Festus Ezeli-Ndulue)
• Ndudi Ebi (once played for Basket Rimini Crabs)
• Ledell Eackles
• Bulbs Ehlers (played for John Wooden – in high school!)

F

• Herm Fuetsch
• Adonal Foyle (sole NBA player from St. Vincent and the Grenadines)
• Frido Frey (1st German-born player in the NBA)
• World B. Free (born Lloyd, he officially changed his name)

Herm Fuetsch

G

• Marcin Gortat
• Manu Ginobili (Gold Medal winner)
• Bato Govedarica (real 1st name Zdravko)
• Pau Gasol (former #3 pick in draft)
• Mickell Gladness (former teams include Matrixx Magixx and Townsville Crocodiles)
• Litterial Green
• Gorham Getchell (also played in the NFL)

Marcin!

H

• Anfernee Hardaway (“Penny”)
• Herm Hedderick (career totals include 4 points, 4 rebounds & 2 assists)
• Kleggie Hermsen
• Montrezl Harrell (siblings include Cadarius and Quatauis)
• Nene Hilario (birth name was Maybyner)

Of Canisius College, that is

I

• Zydrunas Ilgauskas
• Didier Ilunga-Mbenga (speaks 5 languages, including Lingala and Tshiluba)
• Royal Ivey 

Zydrunas Ilgauskas

J

• Noble Jorgensen
• Sarunas Jasikevicius (a brother, Vytenis, also played professional basketball)
• Othyus Jeffers (once played for the Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters)
• Wah Wah Jones (came from younger sister's attempt to say Wallace / only individual to play for both Adolph Rupp and “Bear” Bryant)
• Cheese Johnson (real name was Lynbert)

Wah Wah Jones

K

• Herm Klotz (“Red”)
• Lonnie Klutz (3 games, 0 points, 5 rebounds)
• Nenad Krstic (“Curly”)
• Ibo Kutluay (5 games, 0 points, 1 rebound)
• Ognjen Kuzmic
• Curtis Kitchen
• Kerry Kittles
• Kosta Koufos
• Herb Krautblatt
• Goo Kennedy (real name Eugene)
• Pickles Kennedy

Ognjen Kuzmic

L

• Priest Lauderdale (holds dual American/Bulgarian citizenship)
• Manny Leaks
• Fat Lever (real name is Lafayette)

M

• Martin Muursepp (only NBA player from Estonia)
• Arvydas Macijauskas 
• Cuttino Mobley (“The Cat”)
• Jamario Moon
• Bill Mlkvy (dentist after his basketball career was over)
• O.J. Mayo (full name is Ovinton J’Anthony Mayo)
• Luc Mbah a Moute (is a genuine Cameroonian prince)
• Monk Meineke 
• Fab Melo (short for Fabricio)
• Pops Mensah-Bonsu (full name is Nana Papa Yaw Dwene Mensah-Bonsu)

Bill Mlkvy (“The Owl Without a Vowel”)

N

• Moochie Norris (named after the Cab Calloway song "Minnie the Moocher")
• Jusuf Nurkic 
• Rasho Nesterovic (short for Radoslav)
• Ivano Newbill 
• Cotton Nash (also played major league baseball)
• Swen Nater (spent part of his youth in an orphanage)
• Nerlens Noel (6th pick in the 2013 draft)
• Boniface N'Dong (Senegalese/German dual national)

O

• Bo Outlaw (somehow managed to play 10 years in the NBA with a .521 FT average)
• Alan Ogg (7’2”)
• Mark Olberding
• Olumide Oyedeji (has played in the US, the UK, Russia, Germany, Greece, China, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Spain, Nigeria, Italy, Jordan, and Kuwait)

P

• Kostas Papanikolaou
• Easy Parham (real name Estes)
• Med Park (real name Medford)
• Olden Polynice 
• Zaza Pachulia (real name Zaur)
• Togo Palazzi (5th pick overall in NBA draft ... in 1954)
• Smush Parker (has played in the US, China, Russia, Greece, Venezuela, Croatia, Tunisia, Morrocco, the Dominican Republic, Iran, and Mongolia)
• Zarko Paspalj
• Pavel Podkolzin (former teams include Sibitelecom Lokomotiv and Metallurg Magnitogorsk)
• Marlbert Pradd (all-time leading scorer at Dillard Univ.)
• Kristaps Porzingis

Easy Parham

R

• Zeljko Rebraca
• Efthimi Rentzias (once played for Ulkerspor)
• Pooh Richardson (1st pick ever of the Minnesota Timberwolves)
• Tree Rollins (born Wayne Monte Rollins)
• Rajon Rondo (4-time All Star)

S

• Wally Szczerbiak (his dad Walt also played, in the ABA)
• Odie Spears (born Marion Odicea Spears)
• Soumaila Samake (has played for the Cincinnati Stuff, Greenville Groove, Geoplin Slovan, Detal Inowroclaw, and Mornar Bar)
• Otto Schnellbacher (also 2-time NFL Pro Bowler)
• Thabo Sefolosha 
• Tornike Shengelia (“Toko”)
• Cheikh Samb
• Uros Slokar
• Diamond Stone
• Stan Stutz (led the NCAA in scoring for 3 straight years)
• Belus Smawley (one of the inventors of the jump shot)
• Pape Sow (pronounced “pop sow”)
• Tiago Splitter 
• Whitey Skoog (born Myer Upton Skoog)
• Predrag Savovic
• Detlef Schrempf (also the title of a song by the group Band of Horses)
• God Shammgod (is actually a Jr. / also went by the name Shammgod Wells)

Wally Szczerbiak

T

• Terry Teagle 
• Hasheem Thabeet (sole NBA player from Tanzania)
• John Tschogl
• Corny Thompson (real name Cornelius)
• Sedale Threatt (once played for Paris Basket Racing)
• Lou Tsioropoulos
• Mirsad Turkcan (born Mirsad Jahovic)
• Hedo Turkoglu (currently an advisor to Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan )
• Zan Tabak
• Dragan Tarlac
• Yuta Tabuse (sadly does not rhyme with "caboose" / the “Michael Jordan of Japan”)

John Tschogl

U

• Ekpe Udoh (born Ekpedeme Friday Udoh)
• Ime Udoka (1st professional team was the Fargo-Moorhead Beez)
• Roko Ukic (middle name is Lenny)

V

• Ratko Varda (played 1 NBA game, for 6 minutes, scoring 5 points)
• Stojko Vrankovic (7'2")
• Butch Van Breda Kolff (Princeton grad)
• Whitey Von Nieda (real name Stanley)
• Kiki Vandeweghe (born Ernest Maurice VanDeWeghe III / his dad played in the NBA & his mom was a Miss America)

Butch Van Breda Kolff was also manager of the New Orleans Jazz

W

• Elnardo Webster 
• Bonzi Wells (nickname shortened from original nickname “Bonbon”)
• Taurean Waller-Prince 
• Clarence Weatherspoon (“Baby Barkley”)
• Win Wilfong (born Alva Winfred Wilfong)
• Von Wafer (born Vakeaton Quamar Wafer / AKA “The Dutch Cookie”)
• Harthorne Wingo 
• Metta World Peace (born Ron Artest, he officially changed his name)

Elnardo Webster

Y

• Charlie Yelverton
• Korleone Young (born Suntino Korleone Young)

Korleone Young

Z

• Paul Zipser (born Paul Viktor Louis Zipser)
• Ivica Zubac (once played for Mega Leks)
• Zeke Zawoluk (real name Robert)

Cough, please

(Zeke Zawoluk, 1951)