Why DeMarcus Cousins doesn't want people to call him ‘Boogie' anymore

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Programming note: Watch the pregame edition of Warriors Outsiders on Saturday at 3:30 p.m., streaming live on the MyTeams app.

DeMarcus Amir Cousins was born on Aug. 13, 1990 in Mobile, Ala.

To many, he goes by "Boogie," -- a nickname that was coined his freshman year at Kentucky by assistant coach Rod Strickland.

“I would be playing ball and I would do moves that guards would do and coach Strickland said, ‘Man, you got a lot of Boogie.’ Every time I walked into the gym he would say, ‘What’s up Boogie!’ and it just stuck," Cousins told ESPN during his rookie year in the NBA.

But the four-time NBA All-Star is connected to "Boogie" in another way -- this one with a negative connotation.

Lonnae O'Neal of The Undefeated has the details:

As a 6-foot-9-inch 10th-grader, Cousins was kicked off his Birmingham high school team after an altercation with a coach on the bus after a game. Soon, people were saying that Cousins had beaten up his coach — because with Cousins, the story always gets bigger — and that was the beginning of the Boogie Man.

Fast forward about 13 years later, and Cousins is looking to shed the nickname.

“It’s just like, Jesus Christ! It’s so much extra put on with ‘Boogie,’ ” Cousins told The Undefeated. "I don’t want to be Boogie. I just wanna be DeMarcus.”

[RELATEDDeMarcus Cousins' big contract in free agency will make Steve Kerr happy]

If people say "Boogie" to him, is he going to ask them to stop calling him that? Is he going to ask media members to not use "Boogie" in articles or podcasts or on TV?

On Thursday night in Oakland, Cousins hosted his third annual "Boogie's Comedy Slam" at the Paramount Theater. 

Will the event have the same name next year? We need the answers to these very important (not really) questions!

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