Lakers-Magic: Hot For Words

Okay, so not exactly a revelation at this point (they went up before Game 1 and Game 4, respectively), but I wanted to get this one up (just) before everyone breaks for the weekend. Thus, anyone perusing OTB for NBA Finals stuff will have these gems to add to their barstool talk-repetoire. They're pretty self explanatory: hot girl with foreign accent talks NBA team names and gets to the roots of their origin. HotForWords is actually one of the cooler gimmicks going on Youtube. Sure, people watch because Marina Orlava's a hottie, but when she says you'll learn about word origins, she's not messing around. She's a Russian philologist who references the OED (get educated, y'all...except you need to pay. damn gate-keepers!), been on the O'Reilly Factor, and calls her little corner of the internet "Etymologia." In other words, we who spit Epocrypha love, love, love her.

These episodes depart a bit from strict etymological study, but they do provide nice insight into where the Lakers and Magic team names come from. She looks at the oddity of having a team called the Lakers in a place without very many lakes (they came from Minneapolis). Speaking of teams moving with inappropriate names, we should really get the Jazz back to New Orleans. The discussion of the Magic name is a bit more educational for the knowledgable b-ball fan. Orlava discusses Jim Hewitt and Pat Williams, who brought the organization to O-town, and the four names out of thousands volunteered that they chose from. I don't know about Florida's Heat being a bad thing, but suffice to say another team walked away with that one. And let's just thank Patrick Ewing's fade that the team wasn't called the Orlando Juice. Orlava asks a good question to end: if you could name a basketball team, what name would you give it? Bring answers to the liveblog Sunday, sports fans. Do svidaniya!

Posted in: etymology,Los Angeles Lakers,Orlando Magic,youtube