With Josh Okogie’s nice performance against the Lakers (is LeBron or is LeBron not currently crying by himself while looking at pictures of the Cleveland skyline?), I feel fully justified in having prematurely assigned him the nickname “Okobe”. Elie Okobo does not get that nickname because Okogie had it first, even though Okobo had on-court performances that warranted the nickname sooner than Okogie did. That’s just how nicknames work. It’s not about who deserves it more. It’s about who gets there first.
I could modify the nickname to be spelled “Okobie”, so that Okobo can be “Okobe”. But then it just looks like I made a typo on Okogie’s real name. And with that spelling, it’s hard to tell what I’m referencing. When I spell it “Okobe”, it’s very clear that I’m alluding to the late great Kobe Bean Bryant.
And the Kobe comparison isn’t even that outrageous. It’s pretty outrageous, but not unbelievably so. Okogie had athletic plays at the rim, he had jumpshots, he had sizzling defensive highlights, those are all things that young Kobe was known for. So there will be no apologies whatsoever for the “Okobe” nickname. Not now and not ever.