“I go to bed starving.”–Shabazz Napier
Stop the presses!
I was all set to publish a tribute to the start of the baseball season, but along came Shabazz Napier and his MVP performance to lead UCONN’s run to the NCAA division one men’s national championship and–poof! What timing. Considering that my wife and daughter are both UCONN alums, I just had to shift gears and get this out first. (Considering all the tuition checks I sent them, you’d think they could rebate me something out of all that TV money. But that’s another story.) I was unable to find any back story on where the name Shabazz came from. But shazam, did he ever have a great tournament.
As for the quote above, it was actually published by CNN this morning, and came out as a sideline to the Northwestern University athletes winning the right to unionize. Napier said that his scholarship doesn’t cover all his basic expenses, and he often doesn’t have money for food. He went on to say, though, that he does not think of himself as an employee, but a student-athlete. Nor does he think college players should get tons of money, just some say. Judging by how he played this past weekend, he’ll be eating like a king when the NBA comes calling in a few months. GO HUSKIES!
OK, I got that off my chest. Now it’s time for baseball.
He won’t go unfed for long.
The Blog of Funny Names 
Neato!
By the way, Betty Shabazz (born Betty Jean Sanders) was the wife of Malcolm X. The name Shabazz comes from the Nation of Islam and is a kind of Genesis-ish racial geneology:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribe_of_Shabazz
When I hear names like that, I always wonder, “What is his REAL name?” Perhaps his parents are Islamic and chose that as his birth name, but it sounds like the name of someone who rejected their identity and picked a new (religious) name to start a new chapter in their lives. If we changed our names every time we made a change to our identity, we’d go crazy. I would have just kept Cassius Clay myself.
“What is his REAL name?” Hmmmm. I’m an old white lady so maybe this doesn’t count, but every time I married I got a new name. Then, after my last divorce, I decided to take my mom’s mom’s maiden name, since my dad’s name had lots of males to carry it forward. So now, on Facebook, for instance, I have 5 names. Wouldn’t want any of my friends from my different real lives to not be able to find me.
Good point. I’m not trying to be mean. It just rubs me the wrong way when people change their names (not him) to suit their new religions. But they are free to do so. I wouldn’t become born-again and change my name to Moses.
It’s complicated. Sometimes you can keep the same religion and keep changing names, like baptismal name, confirmation name, names when you join a religious order or take on an office (Mother Theresa, Pope Francis).
I would make a guess that Shabazz was the name given at birth, maybe because of his mom or dad’s sympathies to Malcolm X and what he stood for, and not necessarily because of Nation of Islam affiliation.
His mom is Puerto Rican, by the way.
Yes, you are probably right.
But if you became born-again, you might change your name to Mary. Moses is so Old Testament. 😉
True. Moses would never wear a skinny jean, either.
Hah!
shabazz! sounds like a magic declaration!
Shabazz! Such a great name!