The budding rivalry between Utah Jazz guard Donovan Mitchell and the Denver Nuggets — particularly guard Jamal Murray — grew a little bit more Tuesday, but it wasn’t because of anything that happened on the basketball court.
It was over a nickname.
On Monday, Murray told media that players call new teammate Facundo Campazzo Spider-Man “because every pass he does is a one-handed slinger. ... He’s great. He’s going to be incredible for us.”
On Tuesday, the Nuggets social media team posted on Twitter a graphic with the quote and a photo of Campazzo edited with a web coming out of his arm onto a basketball. They added a caption which read, “Heard it here first!” and added a spider emoji.
Mitchell, who was drafted by Denver in 2017 before being traded to the Jazz, is of course nicknamed “Spida” in part because he was a Spider-Man fan as a kid. He took some playful umbrage to the Nuggets’ tweet Tuesday, quoting it with just a popular GIF of a young boy blinking in disbelief.
https://t.co/utcGtCO2eu pic.twitter.com/ZuWbzCvghK
— Donovan Mitchell (@spidadmitchell) December 15, 2020
In some fairness to Murray and the Nuggets, the 29-year-old Campazzo of Argentina who is playing in the NBA for the first time this season really is a tremendous passer.
Utah and Denver will play each other for the first time this season on Jan. 17, 2021.