Sorry to break it to you Josh Giddey, but your nickname isn’t up to you …
The Aussie wunderkind has set the NBA on fire with countless highlight reel plays already at the beginning of this third season on the big stage.
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While All-Star accolades seem a mere future formality for Giddey, the 21-year-old has truly shown he’s become a fan favourite, having been bestowed a nickname by the masses.
At 203cm and 98kg, Giddey’s passing ability and all-round game has caught plenty of people’s attention, but in particular, his inbound balls are arguably the best in the NBA.
Giddey can see plays unfolding ahead of time, allowing him to thread passes through incredibly tight areas to set teammates up for open shots.
The skill has an acronym of SLOB (for SideLine Out of Bounds) and thus Giddey’s “SLOB wizard” nickname was born.
The Athletic’s John Hollinger unintentionally bestowed the nickname on Giddey last weekend, writing on X: “Giddey is a SLOB wizard, gets a crazy one off like this almost every game.”
Since then, Giddey himself made a lighthearted joke with the new moniker on X, writing: “A slob wizard is insane,” as well as a series of cry-laughing emojis.
Then on Tuesday (AEDT) against the Pistons, fans brought it into the real world with members of the crowd yelling out “good job slob wizard!” before another fan jumped in with “slob wizard” as Giddey came to the bench.
Giddey then responded.
Even basketball stats aggregator Basketball Reference got in on the action, adding “SLOB Wizard” into his bio.
But when he was asked about the new nickname Giddey wasn’t so happy.
“Oh my god — now let’s not make that stick,” Giddey said. “That’s been sticking too long already.”
But Giddey may have a fight on his hands as fans seem to love the new moniker.
One fan posted: “SLOB Wizard has to be the most insane nickname of all time.”
Daily Thunder OKC beat writer Brandon Rahbar tweeted referring to the Basketball Reference move: “Josh Giddey is officially The SLOB Wizard. ️
“Should add Vanilla Magic while they’re at it.”
Although it wasn’t an inbound, Giddey did have another highlight reel pass in his side’s 110-106 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans with a one handed alley-oop pass the commentators said very few other players could have executed.
But despite all the SLOB magic at his disposal, Giddey couldn’t lead his team to the W.
The Thunder blew a 19-point first quarter lead as the Pelicans came back to claim the victory at Oklahoma City.
Giddey scored 13 points, eight rebounds and threes assists in the first half of the match, but he fell away sharply in the second half, finishing the game with 15 points, nine rebounds and four assists in 31 minutes.
The Thunder were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 20 points, eight assists, Chet Holmgren’s 19 points, 11 rebounds and Jalen Williams’ 18 points and eight rebounds.
CJ McCollum (29 points, 11 rebounds) and Zion Williamson (20 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists) each tallied double-doubles as the Pelicans move to 3-1 on the season.
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