Gerald Henderson declared for the NBA Draft in April. More than seven months later, I’m here to tell you it wasn’t that big of a deal.
Yes, Henderson was the best player on a team that won the ACC Tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16. Sure, his dunks consistently electrified Cameron more than anything else in the past four years.
But the most important part of Henderson’s emergence last season wasn’t that he established himself as a legitimate NBA prospect. It was that he, Jon Scheyer and Kyle Singler formed a deadly trio that became nearly impossible to stop, as long as the opponent wasn’t Villanova. When defenses managed to stop one or two of the Big Three, the others compensated. And then there were games, like the ACC Tournament final against Florida State, when all three exploded and Duke became almost unbeatable.
Six games into the season, it seems safe to say that the Blue Devils have a new trio to lean on in 2009-2010. After showing hints of a potential breakout season at the Blue-White game Oct. 16, Nolan Smith has established himself as one of Duke’s primary weapons. He currently leads the Blue Devils in scoring with 18.5 points per game, including a career-high 24 in his season debut against Charlotte Nov. 17.
Add in the preseason All-American (Singler) and the point guard poised to become the ninth Duke player to average double-digit points for four seasons (Scheyer), and you have a threesome that is as good as any in the nation.
It’s just missing one thing: a nickname.
The Big Three wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t particularly creative or unique to the Blue Devils. When most people hear “Big Three,” they think of car companies, T.V. stations or the Boston Celtics, not Henderson, Scheyer and Singler.
Scheyer, Singler and Smith need a better nickname. Being one of the best isn’t just about what you do on the court. (OK, maybe it is.) But a good nickname certainly doesn’t hurt. Just ask Air Jordan, Magic or Pistol Pete. Or well-known units like Phi Slamma Jamma, the Purple People Eaters and the Steel Curtain.
I’m convinced that the Three ‘S’s—which is what ESPN analyst Dick Vitale called them during last week’s NIT Season Tip-Off—have more naming potential than last year’s trio. But what direction should we take it?
The Three Musketeers? Too medieval. The Three Stooges? Too goofy. The Three Amigos? Still not quite there.
Besides, none of those take advantage of what really makes Duke’s top trio unique: a shared last initial. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. By my imprecise calculations, there is a 0.15 percent chance that a team’s top three scorers will have the same last initial and a 0.006 percent chance that the initial is an S (assuming it’s equally likely for a last name to start with any letter, which isn’t true, but it makes the math much easier). Factor in the probability of it happening on a top-10 team, and we may never see this again at an elite program.
The Three ‘S’s is OK, but it’s a cop-out, like A-Rod or KG. SSS is too simple, not to mention too hard to say.
SSS can represent a hissing sound, though, and there must be an intimidating snake name to use, right? Plus, Scheyer, Singler and Smith play for the Devils, and that connection is just too good to pass up. (Of course, as any knowledgeable Duke fan will tell you, the Blue Devils were named after a French infantry battalion, not Satan. But that only dampens the snake-devil link a little.)
The problem is finding a good snake name. Most blue snakes have the color in their name, so those are out because they’re too obvious. Some, like the Black Mamba, are taken. Others, like the Eastern Diamondback, are too unwieldy to be used.
And it seems like the snake should reflect Duke’s three stars in some way, but that is nearly impossible to do. “Sidewinders” maintains the ‘S’ theme in the name, but there is no other link to the three Blue Devils unless you are willing to make a big leap and say that these venomous pit vipers—like Scheyer, Singler and Smith—are dangerous.
So snakes are too complicated. What about well-known objects that have ‘S’s on them? It works for the M&M boys (take your pick of Mantle and Maris, Mauer and Morneau or virtually any Detroit Lions GM/coach combination since 2001). “The Skittle boys” doesn’t quite have the same ring to it, though.
Of course, there is another familiar object associated with the letter S. It’s simple yet powerful, forceful yet graceful. It would subtly chip away at any doubts about Duke’s athleticism. The only problem is that an NBA superstar is already using it. But he’s using the singular form. This would be a slight twist.
And what opponent would want to face a starting lineup consisting of the Plumlees and the Supermen?
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