With the 16th pick in Thursday night’s NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics selected French forward Guerschon Yabusele, which is a real person’s actual given name and which, of course, immediately set off a social media firestorm with jokes about that name. Most of us still haven’t even mastered “Giannis Antetokounmpo” yet, so we’re looking forward to a lot Google-based trial and error in our collective futures.
In the meantime, Twitter went to work:
Watching the draft with Jackie MacMullen here in Boston. She is excited to try and spell Guerschon Yabusele.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 24, 2016
https://twitter.com/riles023/status/746155274256396288
The challenge of pronouncing it correctly on air also promised to yield an endless array of unintentional comedy.
@IAmJamesStewart @TonyMassarotti you guys are going to need a mispronunciation episode just for Guerschon Yabusele
— Drew Egger (@drewegger15) June 24, 2016
And then there was the general disbelief that he’s an actual person.
https://twitter.com/redsoxstats/status/746152323123187712
https://twitter.com/andrewsharp/status/746152733208641536
https://twitter.com/TacumaRoe/status/746156085975867395
Guerschon Yabusele sounds like something Fred Flintstone yells while sliding down a dinosaur's back. #NBADraft
— J.E. Skeets (@jeskeets) June 24, 2016
Last but not least, there was this guy, who looks like if Shock G/Humpty transformed himself into a very irate Celtics fan.
https://twitter.com/CauldronICYMI/status/746154026614415361
Solid work, Twitter. Teasing someone for having a funny name is low-hanging fruit, but after all, what would Draft night be without a little mild xenophobia?
