The NBA Before-and-After Name Game

I almost didn’t write this. The idea came from Josh, a friend of mine. So, I knew, at least, that Josh would like it. But, otherwise, I was pretty unsure — will anybody actually read this? Because, I mean, this is the definition of trivia. I know you’re all NBA nerds, but even nerds have limits.

And I struggled to come up with an introduction, too. Sometimes it’s good to start with a tweet and riff off of that. So I tried to look for tweets about “Chris Paul George Hill”, because I was pretty sure I remembered jokes about that trio possibly ending up on the same team when they were all free agents last summer and how funny that would be. But all I could find was this, which didn’t seem to bode well for my pageviews.

Then, I kept looking.

Eureka! If Henry Abbott thought it was a fun game…if he was tweeting about it…then it was definitely blogable. Who cares if his tweet was five years old?

The Challenge

So, the object of the game — as Abbott explained – is to link NBA first and last names. What I wanted to do — beyond responding to Abbott’s prompt about finding the longest possible string of names — was to find the best string of names. I wondered, could I find a chain of three names that’s more formidable than Chris Paul George Hill? How many such trios exist in NBA history? And — if we created a big 3-on-3 tournament of “before-and-after” teams — who would win it all?

To search for before-and-after player chains I used Basketball-Reference to build a database of every name in NBA history. After removing duplicates and suffixes like “Jr.” I found 4225 unique names. For simplicity’s sake, I looked for EXACT matches, only — no homonyms. For the handful of individual players with three names, like Joe Barry Carroll, I did my best to parse out which were first and last names using my intuition. Some players are listed by nickname in Basketball-Reference — for example, it’s just “Stephen Curry” not “Wardell Curry Jr.” — so I basically used whatever version of a player’s name popped up in the Play Index.

In the end, I found 655 players whose first name was the same as another player’s last name and 602 players whose last name was the same as another player’s first name. This resulted in a total of 2312 two-player before-and-after combos based on 173 unique “nodes”. We already know that one of these strings was Chris Paul George (node = ”Paul”) and another was Paul George Hill (node = “George”).

There were 1729 ways to combine a pair of two-player strings together into a trio using 116 different names in the middle of those strings. For example, Chris Paul George Hill is one possible three-player chain (“Paul” and “George” being the nodes in that case).

And we can keep going! There are 1183 four-player chains, 628 five-player chains, 241 six-player chains, 76 seven-player chains, 15 eight-player chains, and these 3 different nine-player chains:

1. Ronnie Lester Conner Henry James Ray Scott Lloyd Neal Walk
2. Ronnie Lester Conner Henry James Thomas Jordan Mickey Dillard Crocker
3. Ronnie Lester Conner Henry James Thomas Jordan Mickey Davis Bertans

So there’s your answer to the first question. NINE. Nine is the longest chain I could link up.

Links in the Chain

But what’s the best chain? If we’re assembling that 3-on-3 bracket I dreamed of, we have 1729 possible entrants. That’s too many teams. The thing is — some names get used over and over again to link up the player chains. Paul George, for example, was the sixth-most popular name, being used in 79 of the 1729 three-player combinations (10 times as the first name, 68 times as the second name, and once as the third name). But the most popular chain link is Henry James.

Henry James was in more three-player before-and-after combinations than any other name — 43 times as first name (shown with the pink bar), 203 times as the second name (in blue), and 2 times as the third name (in green).

Another problem with our tournament is that all of the best teams are captained by the same small group of superstar players: LeBron James, Chris Paul, Karl Malone, and Michael Jordan. If you sort the trios by total career Win Shares, we see these same names repeating a lot.

You can see that Chris Paul George Hill is definitely in the mix for the best ever before-and-after trio. But there are probably better Chris Paul George- options available (+Mikan, +Gervin, +Yardley, etc.). But that’s kinda boring, right? So let’s institute some eligibility criteria for our 3-on-3 tournament. Each player can appear on only one team. And we’re going to spread the talent around as much as possible.

The Teams

As we breakdown the 16 entrants into the inaugural Before-and-After NBA Name Game 3-on-3 Tournament, keep in mind, we’re considering the strength of each player at his peak.

You Make 16: You know when there are exactly nine guys left at the gym and the next person you see, whoever it is, suddenly becomes your best friend? You make ten — we need you!

Well, I was able to create 14 separate teams featuring at least one All-Star. We needed two more to round out a 16-team bracket. These were them. You make 16 — we need you!

Jason Terry Tyler Zeller

To be fair to these guys, each one was on an All-Rookie Team and the JET was also once Sixth-Man of the Year.

Bobby Wilson Chandler Parsons

This Wilson Chandler Parsons team, on the other hand, is, uh, not great Bob.

Dark Horses: These teams would need some good fortune to win it all, but at least they have some fascinating pieces to work with. Each trio features one All-Star.

Joel Anthony Mason Plumlee

Here’s a rowdy, bruising, oversized trio for you. This group is like the feeling of a sweaty elbow to the nose, personified. Mase was the most decorated of the three, earning an All-NBA bid once.

Rasheed Wallace Bryant Reeves

Sheed and Big Country would be a funny odd couple — one that’s fit for a bad 90s buddy flick where a rube from Arkansas teams up with a city-kid from Philadelphia for one last shot at success, but along the way, they find out that they had so much more in common than they initially realized. If you’re quiet, you can actually hear the Journey-themed slow-motion montage, now. Tactically, this would be another all-big lineup that could cause/suffer matchup problems against smaller teams. But, Sheed stands out among these other big guys because he could stretch the floor with his jumper, which would help space things out a bit.

Jared Dudley Bradley Beal

Dudley Bradley is NOT an intimidating name — it’s sort of dorky, really. But they called this 6-foot-6 shooting guard “The Secretary of Defense” and he was on the 1982 All-Defensive team, so he was definitely a hard-nosed dude. Rising star Bradley Beal provides some sweet shooting and playmaking for this squad, while Jared Dudley brings that heady veteran leadership. Rim protection could be an issue, though.

MVPs Without Help: These teams have an MVP Award winner, but not much else.

Xavier Henry James Harden

Here’s our industrious Henry James, again, appearing in one of his many three-player combinations — this time teaming up with the 2018 MVP, James Harden.

Devean George Karl Malone

Two-time MVP Karl Malone is paired with the athletic small forward, Devean George and player-coach, George Karl. Karl’s history inside the lines isn’t that impressive — he appeared in just 33 career NBA games — but we know he could probably run the show as a point guard and do a reliable job of dumping the ball into the post for the Mailman.

Raymond Felton Spencer Haywood

Spencer Haywood was an MVP, too — in the ABA. His before-and-after teammates, Ray Felton and Felton Spencer, were on All-Rookie teams. This chain has a pretty poetic ring to it, too.

Michael Jordan Mickey Johnson

But can any of these MVPs really win with these teammates? Mickey Johnson was probably the strongest role player in this group — he averaged 19 points-per-game one year and they called him The Rubberband Man, which seems cool. But this might be a bridge too far, even for MJ.

It’s the last seven teams who are the real contenders, here.

Star Duos: These three-player combinations each have a pair of players who have made multiple All-NBA teams – each of these teams could be a handful.

Carmelo Anthony Davis Bertans

You got Hoodie Melo. You got Olympic Melo. You got Syracuse Melo. But I think 3-on-3 Melo might be the best version of all the Melos. Because if he’s playing winner’s out, he’s NOT losing. No defense necessary. Unlimited jab steps. Mix in all-around beast Anthony Davis and you have one tough out.

Chris Paul Grant Hill

I decided to break up Chris Paul and Paul George to get some more stars involved. And Grant Hill definitely needed to be involved in this event. There was a five-year stretch when Hill was a perennial MVP candidate, finishing as high as third in the voting, once. I feel like people black out these NBA memories because this jersey was so scarring, but it really did happen. Paul Grant was a 7-footer who rounds out this team’s roster with some size.

MVPs with Help: This second group of MVPs has a  superior group of teammates.

Brandon Paul George Mikan

Here’s where Paul George ended up — we find him next to the original NBA superstar, George Mikan. Mikan owned the nascent NBA winning four of the first five championships. Mr. Basketball was the face of the league — hawking everything from Pabst Blue Ribbon to spray deodorant to something called “double strength” briefs — he was versatile. On the court, he scored so easily they named a G.D. layup drill after him.

LeBron James Worthy Patterson

I love this pairing. LeBron is the new Magic, right? So this is like Showtime v2.0. And at 6-foot-8 and 6-foot-9, respectively, these guys could matchup with any squad. Worthy Patterson is a bit of a wildcard. He only played four career NBA games, all in 1957, so we can’t be sure how his game will translate to this tournament, but he definitely has a pretty fantastic name.

Chet Walker Russell Westbrook

If we were talking about two-player combinations the Bill Russell Westbrook duo would be SOLID. Chet Walker is a slightly less sterling pairing for Russ, but he’s no slouch, either. A Hall of Fame small forward and seven-time All Star. We have two choices to fill out the remaining roster spot — Walker Russell Jr. or Walker Russell Sr. Unfortunately, both were point guards, so this team ends up being a bit unbalanced either way.

Clifford Ray Allen Iverson

No weak spots here. Allen Iverson attacking and creating off the bounce, Ray Allen working off the ball and nailing threes, and Clifford Ray cleaning the glass and defending the rim. Ray was the long, strong center who anchored the 1975 NBA champion, Golden State Warriors. There will be plenty of mean mugs to go around.

Next: Elie Okobo is a perfect fit for the new Phoenix Suns

My Favorite Trio:

Terrell Brandon Roy Hibbert

This team is my sleeper pick to win the whole tourney. Each of these guys had a short but spectacular career peak. Roy Hibbert’s peak came in 2014 when he was an All-Star and the best rim protector in the NBA. His ability to maintain verticality was legitimately one of the greatest threats to LeBron’s eight-year run of Eastern Conference supremacy. Terrell Brandon peaked in 1996 — he, too, was an All-Star that year. He averaged 19 points and 7 assists per game for the Cavs and finished in the Top-10 for Win Shares. Brandon Roy had his peak in 2009. It was just his third year in the league and he was already earning an All-NBA selection. Roy seemed set to be a superstar for a long, long time and then, way too soon, it was all over — a promising career derailed by degenerative knees. But there are no injuries in this tournament, so this team is gonna be stacked.