"Once it goes in, it never comes back out" - Danny Ainge explains why Kevin McHale earned the most accurate nickname in NBA history
No player is allowed to be a superstar in the NBA without a nickname. It's a rite of passage, a signal to the world that you have arrived, a name that will stick side-by-side with a player's legacy throughout their career.
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We've had some incredible ones over the years — "The Truth", "The Answer", "White Chocolate", "Air Jordan", "King James", "The Black Mamba", "The Mailman" and "Dr J" are just a handful among many nicknames that have graced the Association and injected some magic back into competition.
But for every "Chef Curry", "Joker" or "Slim Reaper", there are equally peculiar ones that have somehow stuck, even when slightly questionable or confusing at first.
Boston Celtics legend Kevin McHale falls into this category after his teammates dubbed him "The Black Hole" in the 1980s. While it might seem like a bizarre nickname to bestow on a Hall of Famer, luckily for him, it did come with a perfectly logical explanation.
Danny Ainge makes the call
Most people nowadays recognize Danny Ainge as one of the top-tier executives in the league. Still, he also had a quietly successful playing career that spanned from 1981 to 1995. During that time, he collected two championship rings with the Boston Celtics. Although he wasn't a world-beater on the court, he played a role alongside some of the greatest names the league has ever seen.
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Those names included Larry Bird, Robert Parish, Dennis Johnson, and, of course, Kevin McHale. Night in and night out, Ainge shared the floor with these all-timers, and his experience as a player is likely a key ingredient in his successful transition into an elite front office operator.
The titles were nice, but Danny is responsible for handing out one of McHale's most unusual and hilarious nicknames ever. Dubbing the talented power forward "The Black Hole" raised a lot of eyebrows at first. Still, Ainge had perfectly good reasoning for it.
"I called Kevin the black hole. Once it goes in, it never comes back out", he explained.
When looking back, it's hard to argue with Danny's justification. Not because McHale was a ball hog, but because he was so supremely gifted in the post that the ball rarely ever needed to come back out. During an era where the game was exclusively played inside-out, the 6'11" forward to this day remains arguably the best post player the league has ever seen.
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He was dominant in scoring the ball and creating for others with his back to the basket, and that's saying something considering he played alongside other legends who also had that in their arsenal.
As for the nickname, it's barely ever discussed in modern NBA circles, but it was every bit worthy of its description. Perhaps it's not brought up because McHale himself is rarely spoken about, which is disappointing given he is undoubtedly one of the all-time great power forwards in league history.
Related: "If you meet a girl in the city, you can bring her on the plane" - Cuttino Mobley shares the wild rules on the early 2000s Rockets
Time to hand out some more
If these past few years in the playoffs have shown us anything, it's that there is a new wave of superstars who deserve a nickname. The reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has a shortened initialism of "SGA," but that doesn't feel powerful enough.
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It would be unjust not to give Tyrese Haliburton a nickname after his playoff run with the Indiana Pacers. The same could be said for Jalen Brunson after he led the New York Knicks to their first Eastern Conference Finals in 25 years.
It's clear that there are some worthy All-Stars who have yet to be given their basketball alias. It's only a matter of time before someone takes a leaf out of Ainge's book and hands them out.
Related: "People don't know how strong that guy is" - Kevin McHale on Larry Bird's most underrated trait as a player
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
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