The Nickname You Get in Atwater Village

OUT THIS WEEK in limited release is Gunnin' For That #1 Spot, a high-school basketball documentary directed by Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys. Yauch comments on his b-ballin' days right here in Atwater Village for ESPN: You go by MCA and Nathaniel Hornblower, but at the Rucker you earn your nickname. What was yours? Oh, I don't think I got one. And Bobbito clearly says in the film that, at the Rucker, you don't nickname yourself. You get branded. So I wouldn't be so bold as to give myself one. Although I will say that at our own basketball court at Atwater, our recording studio [in Atwater Village, Calif.], the guys would call me "The Praying Mantis." Wait, what? I don't know. (Laughs) It's just my Atwater nickname. Maybe it was my technique -- praying mantis-style.