It’s always fun to watch the creation of a player’s nickname in real time, and it’s even more fun when that nickname comes from a closed captioning error. When Sacramento Kings’ guard Nik Stauskas hit a three-pointer Tuesdaay night against the 76ers, closed captioning transformed the play-by-play man’s call of “Stauskas hitting the three” into “Sauce Castillo hit the three.” That fantastic nickname was noted by many NBA fans and writers, including Andrew Unterberger, but it really took off Wednesday when Stauskas hit all five of his first-half shots against Phoenix, causing Kings’ fans to go nuts about “Sauce Castillo.” Some even created amazing graphics:
@Aykis16 @kfippin @CarmichaelDave @sactownroyalty I see your Dos Equis and raise you a Tapatío pic.twitter.com/21EYq9afYO
— Jesse Stout (@jessestout) March 26, 2015
Stauskas found out about it afterwards, with humorous results:
Wait what does “Sauce Castillo” mean? Since when was that my nickname lol!!
— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) March 26, 2015
Lol this Sauce Castillo thing escalated way too quickly!!!
— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) March 26, 2015
When your random nickname starts trending on Twitter LOL… #Sauce pic.twitter.com/AJj5caJeql
— Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) March 26, 2015
And the Kings’ official account, as well as some of his teammates, also got in on the fun:
Sauce Castillo spins and wins! https://t.co/CY54L0aJtQ
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) March 26, 2015
Hi Sauce Castilio, good game last night. Now make sure you bring some donuts to the bus. Thanks. @NStauskas11
— Omri Casspi עומרי משה כספי (@Casspi18) March 26, 2015
It’s even been used by sportscasters and added to his Basketball Reference page:
.@BMayNews10 pulls off a flawless #SauceCastillo reference! https://t.co/3vzsLU3Hia
— Kevin Fippin (@kfippin) March 26, 2015
Hey @NStauskas11 how do you feel about this addition? http://t.co/vzMJYx1nzY pic.twitter.com/z4FdNUdkes
— Basketball Reference (@bball_ref) March 26, 2015
“Sauce Castillo” is quite possibly the funniest name possible for a Canadian from Mississauga, and it never would have come about if not for the magic of closed captioning. Well done by Sacramento fans and media to take this and run with it, and full credit to Stauskas, his teammates and the Kings’ organization for being good sports. The world needs more crazy closed-captioning inspired nicknames.
