Yes, it’s All Shaq All the Time today.
While writing about Shaquille O’Neal in previous posts here, I bumped into several of his various and sundry nicknames. For starters, “Shaq” itself is a nickname. But we won’t even count that as one.
Many Shaq nicknames were those he gave to himself. In his mind he was almost a cartoon/comic book hero who should have an alter ego or two. If not 12. At one point, with the Lakers, I recall him referring to himself as Bruce Wayne (Batman) to Kobe Bryant’s Dick Grayson (Robin).
Anyway, how many guys have 10 nicknames? Not even Babe Ruth (Babe, Sultan of Swat, Bambino, and we’re about done) had that many. Shaq, however, does.
1. Diesel
2. Superman
3. Shaq-Fu
4. The Big Aristotle
5. The Big Cactus
6. The Big Shaqtus
7. The Big Agave
8. The Real Deal
9. The Big Baryshnikov
10. Most Dominant Ever (aka, MDE)
1 response so far ↓
1 Jacob Pomrenke // May 1, 2008 at 11:52 AM
Damon Runyon weeps.
In his time, George Herman Ruth had at least as many nicknames as The Big Shaq-Fu does today. Of course, most of those are lost to history — as most of O’Neal’s will be, too. (I think “Diesel” and maybe “Superman” might last, but that’s about it.)
Credit all those myth-making sports writers with a fondness for alliteration.
So, in no particular order:
1. Babe, 2. Bambino, 3. The Great Bam, 4. Sultan of Swat, 5. Colossus of Clout, 6. Caliph of Clout, 7. King of Clout, 8. Herman the Great, 9. the Maharajah of Mash, 10. the Wazir of Wham, 11. the Behemoth of Bust, 12. the Rajah of Rap … and, of course:
The Home Run King.
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