Nobody needs a nickname, but its fun to believe they do. Plus, I'm on board with the argument that initialized/abbreviated names are boring, played out, and need to be stopped. In Brandon's case, paying for this over use may hurt since "B.Roy" sounds nice. When you take a firm stand, concessions and exceptions are out, so on we go.
Ever since "The Nanny-Stopper," I've considered Slam Magazine as good an authority as any when it comes to nicknames. These days they do contests to come up with nicknames for players who are lacking, and one subject was Brandon Roy. I never saw it in print (the magazine makes me feel old, so is avoided), but heard the winner was "The Blade." Eh.
On this blog, I've taken to simply referring to him as "Everything," but thats describing what he gives to this team, not really a nickname. Through it all, there has been one option that I have silently approved of. It was suggested in the comments of the Slam post, and made an appearance on Deadspin, so maybe has a chance at gaining traction: RoyBot.
First of all, I really enjoy robots. But even if you don't, there's reasons to support this. For me it starts with the idea that
Watch a Blazer game with the player similarities in mind and tell me if you disagree. Both are smart, good at everything, team-oriented, systematic, athletic enough, big enough, quiescent, and most importantly, killing machines. I'm not saying Roy has reached the level of Duncan, but he's on his way. I can't help but think the two share the same soul, in this case a ghost in the machine. When I look at RoyBot I see a perimeter Timmy. Perhaps both come from the same Dr. Soong lab.
