Chicago Bulls color analyst Stacey King wants his flowers for coining one of the best NBA nicknames of the modern era — Jimmy Buckets.
On his podcast, "Gimme the Hot Sauce," King explained how he came up with the perfect alias for Miami Heat superstar Jimmy Butler in his early years with the Bulls.
"On the plane, he came up to me one day and said, 'Man, you be giving everybody some cool nicknames. Why don't you give me a nickname?' I said, 'Jim, you only play, like, five minutes a night. You're not able to do nothing in five minutes. I can't give you a nickname. You got to earn that.'"
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Butler, who was drafted by Chicago in 2011, continued to press King, stating that everyone else on the team had a cool nickname except for him.
"Just give me something," King recalled Butler saying.
Soon after, former Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau put Butler in a game for garbage minutes during a blowout.
"Jimmy had, like, three buckets in a row," King said. "So then I gave him the nickname 'Jimmy G. Buckets — the "G" stands for "gets.'
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"He came up to me the next day and said, 'Oh, man, that was dope. I like that nickname.' I said, 'Well, I hope you get more minutes bro.'"
Butler did, in fact, get more minutes, and went on to earn the NBA's Most Improved Player award in 2015 along with three All-Star selections during his six-year tenure with the Bulls. After short stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Philadelphia 76ers, Butler found a home in Miami in 2019, where he has led the Heat to two NBA Finals appearances (2020, 2023).
King, who won three-straight NBA titles alongside Michael Jordan with the Bulls in the early '90s, has become wildly popular as a broadcaster for his enthusiastic play-calls and signature catchphrases, particularly throughout the Derrick Rose era.