“The Haliban” and the Hollow Humor of Internet Virality

The new nickname for the Pacers star is insensitive and shows us the lengths that many people will go to get some likes on social media

The popular stats website Basketball Reference has a feature highlighting the nicknames of NBA players. Some of these are obvious like “His Airness” for Michael Jordan or “The Answer” for Allen Iverson. Others are a little more obscure like “Argentina’s Flying Man” for Manu Ginobili and “Phatman” for Anthony Davis.

Tyrese Haliburton already has a few well-established nicknames on Basketball Reference

Pacers point guard Tyrese Haliburton has a few nicknames on his Basketball Reference page that have been used in social media discourse throughout his career. The names listed are “Hali”, “The Moment”, and “HIMaburton”. But recently, a new nickname has emerged through social media: The Haliban.

The name is of course a play on the Taliban, the Islamist militant organization that ruled over Afghanistan in the late 1990s and early 2000s and was a primary reason that the United States went to war with Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.