In China there is a strong incentive¹ to come up with short and pithy² nicknames for foreign athletes and celebrities³, because the phonetic⁴ transcriptions of western names used in official sources are incredibly long and dull.

在中国，由于直接从西方正式姓名音译过来的名字显得十分冗长，人们很乐意于给外国运动员和名人取简单精髓的绰号。

Michael Jordan

迈克尔-乔丹

Michael Jordan is called "Bang Zhu" ("gang boss" or "sect⁵ leader") because one of the Chinese characters for his last name "Qiao Dan" is the same as the surname of "Qiao Feng", the legendary⁶ leader of the "Beggars' Sect" in popular wuxia martial⁷ arts novels, often known simply as "Sect Leader Qiao".

迈克尔-乔丹被称作“帮主”（意为团队大佬或教派领导人）因为迈克尔-乔丹的的名字“乔丹”和流行武侠小说中丐帮的传奇帮主“乔峰”一致。所以，乔丹常被简称为“乔帮主”。

Russell Westbrook

拉塞尔-威斯布鲁克

Just take Oklahoma City Thunder star Russell Westbrook, for example. Although his name is only two words in English, in Chinese, it becomes the eight character monster "La Sai Er - Wei Si Bu Lu Ke", for a staggering total of 77 individual strokes, even using the much simplified Chinese characters favored in mainland China.

就以俄城球星拉塞尔-威斯布鲁克为例，在英语中他的名字只有两个单词，但是在汉语中却变成了8个字77笔的“怪物”。而且这还是中国大陆所使用笔画更少的简体汉字。

No wonder Chinese fans prefer to call him something much shorter, like "Wei Shao" ("Wei Dude", from the first syllable⁸ of "Westbrook"), "Ren Zhe Shen Gui" ("The Ninja Turtle," because people think he looks like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle).

也怪不得中国球迷喜欢更简短的称呼他，比如“威少”（“威少”来自于“Westbrook”的第一个音节）。或者“忍者神龟”（源自电影“忍者神龟”因为人们认为他长得像电影中的变种人-忍者神龟）

In crafting new nicknames for NBA players, Chinese netizens take full advantage of the the richness and history of Chinese characters and language, and the results are often a series of astonishingly complex and overlapping⁹ visual and verbal puns.

为了给NBA球员起一个新的绰号，中国网民充分利用中文语言的丰富性和历史渊源，结果往往是一系列惊人复杂、层层叠叠的字面和发音双关梗。

Danny Green

丹尼-格林

Take the case of San Antonio Spurs shooting guard Danny Green. When Green's shooting percentage dropped off precipitously during the 2015-16 season, Chinese Spurs fans started calling him "Shoots Bricks Green".

以圣安东尼奥马刺队的得分后卫丹尼-格林来讲，2015-16赛季，格林的投篮命中率急剧下降，中国的马刺球迷开始叫他“张铁林”。

The first character "Zhang" is short for "Zhang Shou", which means to shoot a basketball, the second character "Tie" is short for "Da Tie", which literally¹⁰ means "striking iron" but is the Chinese slang term for an ugly missed shot (a "brick"), and "Lin" is short for "Ge Lin", which is Chinese phonetic transcription of "Green."

第一个汉字“张”意为张手投篮，第二个汉字“铁”意为投篮打铁，（中文里的俚语，意思为糟糕的投篮），而“林”是“格林”的简写，来源于“Green”的音译。

However, when you put these characters all together, "Zhang Tie Lin" is also the name of a famous Chinese-born British actor best known for playing the Qianlong Emperor on the Chinese television series My Fair Princess. Accordingly, people started calling Green "My Royal Father", which is what the prince on the show always called the Emperor.

然而，这三个字组合在一起，就成了华裔英国演员张铁林的名字，他最著名的就是在电视剧“还珠格格”中饰演的乾隆皇帝，所以球迷们开始称格林为“皇阿玛”。（电视剧中皇子们称呼皇帝的称谓）

NBA

Joel Embiid

乔尔-恩比德

Similarly Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid is called "the Great", but with the sarcastic¹¹ implication that this is a self-anointed epithet¹² that Embiid has not yet earned.

类似的费城76人队的球星乔尔-恩比德被叫作“大帝”，但也有些许讽刺意味，暗示这仅仅是恩比德自封的绰号，并没有真正取得相配的成就。（译者注：这里仅指“大帝”这个绰号开始流行时人们对恩比德的评价，那时恩比德还处于养伤阶段并未展现过多实力。）

James Harden

詹姆斯-哈登

After an MVP season last year, hearing "The Beard" bandied about is more commonplace than ever. Just remember, Harden didn't always have that massive, bushy face fur.

随着上个赛季哈登夺得MVP，“大胡子”的绰号比以往更加响亮，但是，请记住哈登并不是一直拥有那一丛浓密胡须的。

Anthony Davis

安东尼-戴维斯

Similarly to Harden, Anthony Davis's "The Brow" nickname is solely¹³ reliant on Davis's singularly interesting unibrow that he's sported for his entire career.

与哈登一样，安东尼戴维斯的“浓眉”绰号完全是因为他那独特有趣的“一字眉”，这一特征也贯穿了他至今为止整个生涯。

Klay Thompson - Fo Zu "The Buddha¹⁴"

克莱-汤普森——佛祖

Because his very short curly hair reminds Chinese people of the Buddha's hairstyle in traditional Chinese art.

克莱-汤普森——佛祖，因为他那短卷的发型使得球迷想起了中国传统文化中佛祖的发型。

DeAndre Jordan

德安德烈-乔丹

DeAndre Jordan - "Huang Shu"(Uncle of the emperor), mainly because of this picture...The actor is Yu Hewei,who played the role of Liu Bei in the TV series(new) Three Kingdoms.

德安德烈-乔丹——皇叔，主要是因为这张照片，演员于和伟在新版电视剧三国演义中饰演了“刘备”的角色。

Andre Miller¹⁵ - Mo Wen Wei "Karen Mok"

安德烈-米勒——莫文蔚

Because people think he looks like Hong Kong actress and pop star Karen Mok.

安德烈-米勒——莫文蔚，显而易见啦。