Heat And Nets Reveal Nickname Jerseys

On Friday, Brooklyn and Miami will meet while wearing jerseys with the players' nicknames on the back. Marketing gimmick? You bet! But it's tough to hate on anything that gives you a reason to flip over to a January Nets game. The Heat have revealed what their players will go by, and the Nets most of theirs, so let's take a look.

Miami:

Ray Allen: "J. Shuttlesworth" Chris Andersen: "Birdman" Joel Anthony: "Doc" Shane Battier: "Battle" Michael Beasley: "B Easy" Chris Bosh: "CB" Mario Chalmers: "Rio" Norris Cole: "Cole Train" Udonis Haslem: "UD" LeBron James: "King James" James Jones: "JJ" Rashard Lewis: "Sweet Lew" Roger Mason Jr.: "MoneyMase" Greg Oden: "G.O." Dwyane Wade: "D.Wade"

And Brooklyn:

Alan Anderson: "Double"Andray Blatche: "Dray Live"Reggie Evans: "Joker"Kevin Garnett: "The Big Ticket"Joe Johnson: "JJ"Andrei Kirilenko: "Кириленко"Shaun Livingston: "S Dot"Brook Lopez: "Brooklyn"Paul Pierce: "Truth"Mason Plumlee: "Plums"Tornike Shengelia: "Tokomotiv"Tyshawn Taylor: "Tee_Y"Mirza Teletovic: "MT3"Jason Terry: "Jet"Deron Williams: "D-Will"

Some of these weren't the players' first choices. Shane Battier wanted to wear "Batman," which would have been amazing, but would be a trademark violation. Andrei Kirilenko's preferred "AK-47" was presumably nixed by the league, so he's going with the Cyrillic spelling of his name.

And if Joe Johnson ever gets matched up on James Jones, the entire arena should stand up, point, and laugh at them for their lack of creativity.

Nicknames on the back of uniforms aren't a new thing. Uni Watch's Paul Lukas has a fascinating look at this history of nickname jerseys in major sports, with photo evidence. Not surprisingly, basketball's always been the most amenable to a little informality.