From Spanish television comes this profile of de Colo in which the Frenchmen’s nickname of “Aladdin” was revealed due to the bald dome/goateed look resembling the floating apparition of the 1992 Walt Disney adaptation of Arabian tales.
(Now, technically, BiE should point out that the nickname should really be “Aladdin’s Genie” or “Genie.” On the other hand, nobody calls that famous figure of horror movie lore “Frankenstein’s monster.” Not that de Colo is comparable to a reanimated corpse or anything but, ah, BiE lost control of that parenthetical…)
Says de Colo, whose NBA rights are owned by the San Antonio Spurs, on the subject of whether his children have heard about daddy Aladdin: “I don’t know if they know that some people call me this, but if they did know, they would like it.”
As for Nando’s own three wishes, he’d like:
1. To win on Thursday (BiE believes Nando was referring to the game of March 3, in which Valencia did in fact defeat Fenerbahçe Ülker, 82-68);
2. To win “something” with Valencia this year; and
3. That everything goes well with his family.
Aw, that’s nice. Wait a minute … no world peace?
The brief take on Nando “Aladdin” de Colo follows. Just try to look past the cheesy, tiny ceramic lamp they give the poor dude to pose with…