Shane Battier is so "LEGO"

I'm good at doling out nicknames. It's a skill I've been blessed with and a power I wield carefully. Because a bad nickname can have a way with sticking someone and defining them more than you realize.

So with the power of nicknames in mind, it was interesting to read Moneyball author Michael Lewis' piece in The New York Times Magazine about NBA player Shane Battier. Daryl Morey, general manager of the Houston Rockets, has a nickname for Battier, and it's a doozy.

"I call him Lego,” Morey says. “When he’s on the court, all the pieces start to fit together. And everything that leads to winning that you can get to through intellect instead of innate ability, Shane excels in. I’ll bet he’s in the hundredth percentile of every category.”

I've just known him from his days at Duke as a guy who was good at taking a charge. Sadly, he was not one of the NBA players to be minifig-ized back in 2003. Maybe Shane will make the next go round, if they ever go back into production.