You gotta love that this article is on Cleveland.com. The entire city of Cleveland should see if the website www.bittercrybabies.com is available. When are they going to let Booz off the hook?I know that Jazz fans need to begin preparing themselves for the ol' knife-in-the-back from Boozer, but I hope we aren't bitching about it for 6 years like Cavs fans.
Boozer earns his nickname
by Jodie Valade
Saturday August 09, 2008, 9:30 PM AP
In case anyone from Northeast Ohio forgot what he looks like, this is Carlos Boozer.Take heart, Cavaliers fans. About 1.3 billion people think Carlos Boozer lied, too. Or at least that he has an oddly shaped head.
In honor of the Beijing Olympics, which began Friday, The Plain Dealer sought to honor the ancient wisdom of China by unearthing some of the culture's nicknames for NBA players - since hoops is so popular in the Far East.
Our Chosen One, LeBron James, is "Xiao Huang Di," which means Little Emperor. That's a translation of his "King James" nickname, but interestingly is also the name of a syndrome that afflicts an excessively spoiled only child in China. Hey, we just report the facts.
According to Bao Renjun, a reporter for the Cleveland-based Erie Chinese
News, one of the more interesting nicknames is for Boozer.
The Utah Jazz forward is known to the 1.3 billion people in China as "Fan Gu Zai," which, loosely translated, means "Betrayal Skull Dude." Bao says Chinese use "Fan Gu Zai" to refer to those who betray, but "betrayal skull" also refers to a protuberant bone on the front or back of a head. The betrayal skull reference comes from the Chinese story of Zhuge Liang, one of China's most well-known intellectuals and military strategists. According to legend, before Zhuge died, he said, "Wei will betray the country sooner or later." Wei was a general under Zhuge's supervision.
"How do you know?" someone asked. "He has a protuberant bone on his head," Zhuge answered.
So Boozer's nickname of "Fan Gu Zai" is for two reasons: 1. His head is not exactly round, and 2. Chinese fans also believe that Boozer gave his word that he'd return to the Cavaliers in 2004 when he bolted to Utah for more money as a free agent. Who are we to question the wisdom of the Chinese?
