Sekou Doumbouya and Josh Jackson keep this up, they’re going to need a modern-day Kevin McHale to conjure an appropriate nickname.
It was McHale who 33 years ago came up with “X Factor” to describe a pair of coltish Pistons rookies, Dennis Rodman and John Salley. They were critical, the wily Celtics veteran determined, in how the upstart Pistons – not yet dubbed the Bad Boys – would fare against the reigning Eastern Conference heavyweights in the street brawl that the 1987 conference finals became.
Rodman and Salley embraced the nickname, eventually devising an arms-crossed greeting – simulating an X – for each other upon entering games.