The Knicks call 40-year-old Kurt Thomas ‘Mid Life’

We interrupt your March Madness viewing and Miami Heat Streak Watching for a special NBA nickname update, which comes to us from a story about New York Knicks guard Jason Kidd turning 40 years old on Saturday, courtesy of Frank Isola at the New York Daily News:

Carmelo Anthony coined the nickname “Mid Life” for 40-year-old Kurt Thomas during training camp and the name stuck.

“Oh my God,” Jason Kidd said. “We were dying.” [...]

Kidd’s presence on the court makes the Knicks better. He also makes them a little older. And now Carmelo has two teammates he can call “Mid Life.”

“Nope,” Kidd says with a laugh. “That’s Kurt’s name.”

It is, of course, appropriate that the oldest team in NBA history has a player whose nickname evokes thoughts of mortality. Sadly, it is especially appropriate that we learn of this nickname as Thomas finds himself sidelined by a stress reaction/stress fracture in his right foot that will keep him out for the next two to four weeks, meaning that the last regular-season action he saw — in the shorthanded Knicks' Monday night win over the Utah Jazz — could be the last regular-season action he ever sees (although Thomas has continued to downplay the prospects of retirement after this season, which is the last of a two-year deal he signed before the 2011-12 season).

And it is, of course, astounding that there are several other Knicks that could totally take "Mid Life" as a nickname — considering the 2012 estimate that the life expectancy of American males is 76.05 years from birth, it could just as easily apply to Marcus Camby (39 years old), Rasheed Wallace (38) and, loathe as he is to admit it, newly minuted 40-year-old Kidd. But none of them are "Mid Life" in the Knicks' locker room; only Thomas is called that there, and so, we must adhere to the naming convention in the outside world.

Please update your NBA nickname files accordingly, and please begin referring to Kurt Thomas as "Mid Life" in all future references. If we can just mention it as often as we mention the fact that he once led the nation in both scoring and rebounding at TCU, it should become something that everyone ever talks about Kurt Thomas mentions at least once. Thank you for your attention in this matter.