Rankings the best NBA nicknames of all time

6. The Round Mound of Rebound

“Loud, Fat and Gifted” is how seminal basketblog collective FreeDarko described Charles Barkley, and nothing – no matter the man’s actual physical girth – could have been more fitting. Nothing, that is, except for the moniker he’d already earned after a Hall of Fame, sixteen-year career spanning three franchises and eleven All-Star appearances. He played like a steer let out of the pen, punishing unsuspecting big men with his considerable hindquarters and battering guards with deceptive grace.

He was not a role model. He was not going to raise your kids. He would, however, become the fourth player in league history to reach 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists, as well as being one of only four players from the 1992 Dream Team, along with David Robinson, Karl Malone and Scottie Pippen, to return for the 1996 Summer Olympics and win a second gold medal. At 6-foot-6, undersized for a power forward, Barkley led the NBA in rebounding in 1987 and routinely pulled down eye-popping totals, only averaging less than double figure rebounds once in his career, during his rookie season.

Though he is now more known for making sweeping statements regarding teams and players in the NBA he probably only first heard about that morning and then getting immediately reprimanded by NBA on TNT cohosts Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal for not ever having won a championship, Barkley’s brute force and ballet-like movement in the post has left an indelible mark on the league. As unique a player as has ever existed, the Round Mound of Rebound was always lurking.