The Sacramento Kings' top rookie, the eighth overall pick in last June's NBA Draft, started this season as Nik Stauskas. Next week he'll end the season with a different name: Sauce Castillo.
It all started with a closed-captioning TV glitch on March 24, morphed into a hilarious Internet meme and then finally touched down IRL in Sacramento to complete the circle on Sunday night. Stauskas -- or is it Castillo? -- tells Mashable the spontaneous, evolving beast that is Sauce has been a beautiful end to a dreary season.
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To be clear -- Stauskas is amused, but it's also a perplexing situation when your first professional season's 90% over and all of a sudden teammates start calling you by a different name.
"Everyone just calls me Sauce now," Stauskas says of his teammates. But Kings coaches, let the record show, "don't really refer to me as Sauce at all." Quincy Pondexter, an opponent from the Memphis Grizzlies, recently chatted Stauskas up about his new nickname during a game.
Stauskas first found out he'd become Sauce Castillo via Twitter.
"All of a sudden fans on Twitter started talking to me as Sauce Castillo, calling me that," he says. "I didn't really know what was going on at first, I was really confused. Then people started explaining it to me. I thought it was pretty funny, so I've just been going with it."
Wait what does "Sauce Castillo" mean? Since when was that my nickname lol!! — Nik Stauskas (@NStauskas11) March 26, 2015
The birth of Sauce
So how did Nik become Sauce? It starts with a three-pointer he hit against the Philadelphia 76ers on March 24.
In one of those funny fails that makes TV closed-captioning an occasional source of comedy, the Kings' local broadcast bungled his name.
"Stauskas, hitting the three," said the actual TV announcer after the rookie's shot.
"Sauce Castillo hit the three," the closed-captioning accompaniment parroted, inaccurately.
My closed captioning just referred to Nik Stauskas as "Sauce Castillo" and I will never be able to not call him this again— Andrew Unterberger (@AUgetoffmygold) March 25, 2015
From there, a meme was born as the Internet fell in love.
#SauceCastillo pic.twitter.com/loo9u7ILPY— Bradley Geiser (@therealbradg) March 26, 2015
#SauceCastillo pic.twitter.com/BlyB8EWeSW— Jrue (@jrue_) March 26, 2015
Sauce Castillo? Sounds like the anti-hero of Robert Rodriguez or Tarantino film! Teatro de Los Reyes! @NStauskas11 pic.twitter.com/XOtRwWh6Ms— Shera Starr Oliveria (@starr_rakh) March 26, 2015
Stauskas says the memes incorporating sombreros and hot sauce bottles are his favorites. He imagines a real-life player named Sauce Castillo would "probably play with a little bit of flair" but that he's still trying to "just play my own game" instead of attempting to conform to the pressure that comes with being Sauce.
Sauce Castillo IRL
Meanwhile, as the legend of Sauce Castillo spread online, Kings chief marketing officer Ben Gumpert and his team quickly took note. Within 48 hours of the closed-captioning bungle, the team had created Sauce Castillo T-shirts and a custom Sauce Castillo jersey.
You know you want it. Customize your Sauce Castillo jersey today in-store at @SleepTrainArena! pic.twitter.com/Z485BVnnUG— Kings Team Store (@KingsTeamStore) March 26, 2015
The enthusiasm didn't die down. Kings employees continued to see an overall increase in engagement with social media posts, whether or not they had to do with Castillo.
It left only one logical next step: Sauce Castillo Night in Sacramento.
Sauce Castillo Night came this past Sunday against the Utah Jazz. The team produced 16,000 hot sauce bottles -- Stauskas says he signed "a bunch of them." Sauce Castillo shirts sold out of the arena's team store before the first quarter had ended. The Kings' mascot, a lion called Slamson, dressed in a Sauce Castillo costume. Here's Sauce and Slamson together:
The night was a smash hit, although Gumpert credits Kings supporters, saying "the fans have carried this the whole way."
But Sauce Castillo has been more than just good fun in the name of silliness.
The mistake-turned-meme is also a feel-good moment in a Sacramento season where those have been hard to come by. The Kings have had two coaching changes this year, their record stood at just 27-51 entering a Friday night game against the Oklahoma City Thunder and Stauskas has averaged just four points per game in his rookie campaign.
"It's been a crazy year," Stauskas says. "For me as a rookie, I feel like I've been through a lot. We've had three coaches, we haven't been too successful and I haven't played as well as I would have liked to for a lot of the year. With the whole Sauce Castillo thing coming up, it was just cool to have the fans show me love and appreciation, so I'm just embracing it."
Spoken like a true folk hero.