The best (and worst) of current Utah Jazz nicknames

Joe Johnson

Nicknames: Iso Joe, Joe Cool, Big Shot Joe, Joe Jesus, Armadillo Cowboy

Having been in the league now for 16 years, it should come as no surprise that the seven-time All-Star Joe Johnson would be decorated with several fitting nicknames. Without a doubt his most well known one is Iso Joe, derived from his ability to absolutely put defenders on their heels when attacking them one-on-one.

Despite the fact that Joe is quickly approaching 36 years of age, he was still able to showcase the validity of his nickname in Utah’s series win over the Los Angeles Clippers, most notably with his game winner in Game 1 where he executed a perfect isolation against Jamal Crawford:

Beyond that, he has also been referred to as fitting names such as Joe Cool and Big Shot Joe as well as a favorite on Jazz Twitter because of his miraculous saving powers – Joe Jesus. That nickname was given to him by former teammate Kevin Garnett, who said the nickname stemmed from the fact that “He (Johnson) may not be there when you call him but he’s there when you need him.”

On basketball-reference.com, the nickname “Armadillo Cowboy” is also listed for Johnson. I’ll be frank, I’d completely forgotten about that one, though I got a good chuckle out of it upon remembering it. Unfortunately, while there’s lots of mentions of the nickname on Twitter, I for one couldn’t find much info on its origin. So if any of you investigative journalists out there have the scoop for me on how that nickname came to be, I’d much appreciate it.

One thing I do know is when I did a Google image search of Armadillo Cowboy, some pretty Bad-A looking armadillos came up and if that’s not befitting of the kind of player Joe Johnson is, then I don’t know what is.