He first heard the nickname about three years ago, when he was barely a teen.
Now, it's rather easy to understand why he heard it so soon.
"Baby Shaq" is big. Not purely tall, but just plain big — 6-foot-8, currently 315 pounds, give or take a few helpings of baklava. Shaquille O'Neal big.
Like O'Neal, the behemoth Los Angles Lakers center, he does not speak with the booming voice one might expect from someone so, well, large. His sound clips are shyly short. He doesn't so much mumble, but he does practically whisper.
Then there is the given name.
Calling him "Baby Shaq" is simple. Burdensome, perhaps, but certainly convenient.
"They find it easier from calling me Sofoklis," he said of those who throw the tag his way.
Sofoklis Schortsanitis — until Sunday, still just 17 years old — visited with the Jazz on Friday morning in advance of Thursday's NBA Draft.
He tried working out, but could not, hampered instead by a quadricep muscle pulled in a previous workout for another NBA team.
For Jazz brass, that was rather disappointing, because they really wanted those on hand — especially head coach Jerry Sloan and his staff of assistants — to see what the kid can do banging alongside the likes of two players who did audition — former San Diego State center Jason Keep and Polish National Team forward Szymon Szewczyk.
Also present Friday was University of Louisville senior guard Reece Gaines, whom the Jazz wanted to interview but did not necessarily need to see perform.
Jazz scouts have watched Reece, a likely top-20 pick, play numerous times, which is why they decided merely sitting down to talk with him Friday would be best.
Because Schortsanitis toils overseas, though, many in the organization had hoped to see him play some one-on-one.
That did not work out.
"We did some drills with him, and (the thigh muscle) just tightens up on him," said Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's vice president of basketball operations. "So, we didn't get a real chance to take a look at him."
Schortsanitis may or may not be available when Utah picks at No. 19 in the opening round, but he does seem likely to be long-gone by the time it selects at No. 47 in the second.
He is a project, granted, but solid shooting for a big man (58.3 percent from the field last season) combined with relentless offensive rebounding skills (6.2 boards per game over 23 games before he has even turned 18) displayed during his first full season with Iraklis of the Greek League make "Baby Shaq" a tempting treasure sought by several NBA teams.
"He's somebody," O'Connor said, "that's probably going to be (chosen) in the first round."
Size — and that uncanny build similar to a young Shaq — is a huge reason.
"He's really a big, big kid, and he's very long," O'Connor said. "He measures 6-81/2, (but) lengthwise he's probably about a 6-11 player."
O'Connor said the nickname put on Schortsanitis "is not fair to him," yet like so many others, the Jazz exec uses it anyway.
That's OK with Schortsanitis, who does acknowledge the moniker that sounded so cool a few years back now carries pounds of pressure too tough for most teens to shoulder.
"It's a big honor to compare you with Shaq," he said. "But Shaq is something else."
Schortsanitis — born in Cameroon, where his mother is from, but schooled in Greece, the homeland of his father — does not boast he will walk into the NBA with Shaq-like impact.
But he does intend to make a name for himself.
"I hope I have my own style," "Baby Shaq" said, "so I can prosper."
E-mail: tbuckley@desnews.com