How Nik Stauskas a.k.a. Sauce Castillo Earned the Best Nickname in the NBA Without Even Trying

Nik Stauskas a.k.a. "Sauce Castillo" now has the best nickname in the NBA.

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Complex Original

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There are some NBA players who spend years—hi, Kevin Durant!—trying to come up with a good nickname for themselves. And even when they land on something they like—hi, Kobe Bryant!—those nicknames aren't always universally loved. So with that in mind, it's pretty amazing to see how Nik Stauskas went from just another random rookie in the league to a household name in a matter of 24 hours thanks to, of all things, a closed captioning glitch.

During the 76ers/Kings game in Sacramento earlier this week, Stauskas was mentioned by the broadcasting team covering the game. So whoever is in charge of writing captions for those watching at home, typed his name in. Er, at least, they tried to type his name. But instead of "NIK STAUSKAS," this is what popped up:

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And just like that, the nickname "Sauce Castillo" was born.

Initially, Stauskas had no idea what it meant when people started telling him about it. So he took to Twitter to ask his followers what the hell everyone was talking about:

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But before long, he started to embrace it, even though it came out of nowhere:

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His teammates did, too:

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And now, everyone is embracing it:

It was even trending on Twitter for awhile this afternoon:

And while no one has any idea where "Sauce Castillo" actually came from or how the hell it ended up taking the place of Stauskas' name on the TV screen, we're all sure glad it did.

Congrats, Sauce. You've now got the best nickname in the entire NBA. Consider your rookie season a massive success!

Send all complaints, compliments, and tips to sportstips@complex.com.

[via Bleacher Report]

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