Stop Trying To Make "The Moment" Happen for Tyrese Haliburton. It's Not Going To Happen
Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton already has a nickname that he is known by, and its not a cheesy corporate one from the NBA brass.
Everyone loves a good NBA nickname.
Air Jordan, King James, Doctor J, Larry Legend, The Glove, White Chocolate, and so many more.
These monikers have become synonymous with the players they're attached to, even replacing their real names in the case of Erving "Magic" Johnson.
The powers that be in the NBA have decided to foist a new nickname upon one of the bright young stars of the league:
Tyrese "The Moment" Haliburton.
There are just a few problems with this new nickname.
Not only does it suck and everyone hates it, but Haliburton already has the perfect nickname of his own that wasn't manufactured by a corporate entity.
"The Haliban" is an insane nickname, and I am all here for it.
It just rolls right off the tongue, and it conjures visions of Haliburton terrorizing teams as he has been doing all playoffs long.
We also have to consider that "The Haliban" has a perfect foil in the form of "ShaISIS" Gilgeous-Alexander.
Now, of course, no self-respecting play-by-play announcer would ever utter the phrase "The Haliban" in today's climate, so it's understandable why this clever nickname hasn't picked up steam outside the hallowed grounds of the internet.
But for crying out loud, you can't just force a nickname on a guy and expect there to be no backlash, especially when it's as lame as "The Moment."
This reminds me a lot of the time people were calling Kevin Durant "Slim Reaper" and he got all pissy and demanded people call him "The Servant" instead (that doesn't sound like something he would do at all).
Nicknames have to come about naturally, so when the internet starts calling you "The Haliban," you just have to roll with it.
To his credit, I haven't seen Haliburton come out and denounce anyone calling him by his jihadist-inspired nickname, either out of ignorance or just being a good sport.
Regardless, no one is going to call Tyrese Haliburton "The Moment" outside the corporate NBA world and its media team, who are becoming increasingly out of touch with their consumer base.
The sooner these hacks can get that through their heads, the sooner we can go back to complaining about other, more important things, like the lackluster broadcast team of Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson.