Marco Belinelli Needs A Nickname

Warriors’ first round draft pick Marco Belinelli has been the ragazzo d’oro (golden boy) of the Vegas Summer League, but so far, the Italian import has no good nicknames. According to his Wikipedia page (and his Italian version too), his only sopranome is “Beli.” Bo-ring!

Let’s change that.

Bay Area sports fans, it’s up to us to find our newest fan-favorite Warrior a nickname. Oh, and the first person to suggest “Italian Stallion” gets banned. Originality, people.

Here are a few ideas to get the juices flowing:

• Il Tiratore: We saw this on GSoM. It means “the shooter” in Italian. It’s good, but we can do better.
• Dio: God.
• The Espresso Machine: Vinnie “The Microwave” Johnson energized those Celtics Pistons team with “instant offense”; Belinelli will provide a similar offensive jolt for the Warriors off the bench.
• Nellie’s Beli: This one really doesn’t make much sense, but it’s been thrown out there because it’s cute. Errrr, clever. Clever!
• The Renaissance: Plus, you’ve got the duality of the Warriors’ own rebirth.
• The Duro Euro: “Duro” means “hard” in Italian, and we know Marco’s not just another soft European in the mold of Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic. But there are those, um, sexual undertones.
• The Crazy Bolognese: It rhymes. If he proves to be the second coming of Mike Dunleavy on defense, the Lazy Bolognese.
• Omerta: We like this one. Omerta is the Sicilian code for silence (usually in the context of mafia doings). When Belinelli nails a couple threes of the bench in Staples Center, the crowd will go silent. He will be a silencer.
• Three Point Mafia: You know, like the Oscar winners.
• Wop N’ Pop: This is actually more of a set play. Some teams have the pick n’ roll; look for Nellie to run the wop n’ pop, taking advantage of Marco’s shooting touch.
• La Cosa Nostra: He’s our thing.
• Sprezzatura: The Renaissance ideal of making the difficult look easy. The meaning fits, as Marco makes the game look easy, and the word is fun to say, but it’s a bit of a mouthful. This is one of our favorites, mostly because we like saying it. Sprezzatura.
• EVOO: Yeah, we hate Rachael Ray, but MB’s game is smooth like olive oil.
• Il Guerriero: Italian for “warrior.”
• Intrepido!: It means “fearless.” If the summer league games are any indication, Belinelli is not scared to take the quick three or take it hard to the rim. Plus, we like the idea of Jim Barnett screaming “Intrepido!” after a Belinelli dunk.

We suspect that the more we see him play, the more ideas we’ll get. For now though, feel free to share your suggestions/votes.

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• Belinelli Shines In Warriors Debut. Molto.
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