Steven Adams, the quietly-spoken 20-year-old rookie from New Zealand, has quickly made a name for himself among the millionaire players of the NBA.
Or, that should be nicknames.
He's known as The Seven Foot Pest, Stone Cold Steve Adams and after bumping and scrapping with the Dallas Mavericks earlier in the season, the Texas team's star Dirk Nowitzki labelled the Kiwi The White Kendrick Perkins.
Perkins is Adams' Oklahoma Thunder team-mate, a 208cm, 122kg brute and one of the NBA's feared enforcers.
The great Vince Carter, after being struck by an accidental Adams elbow, retaliated with an intentional elbow to Adams' head.
The Memphis Grizzlies' Zach Randolph, out of frustration, recently elbowed, then punched Adams in the face as they ran down the court.
In total, five of Adams' opponents this season have been ejected for losing their cool with the Kiwi.
The attention and nicknames are a surprise to Adams, although being a giant pest is not new for the 213cm, 116kg centre from Rotorua.
Adams, who was already 203cm as a 15-year-old and would often eat six meat pies for a snack after school, is the youngest of 18 children.
Being annoying comes naturally for a kid with 17 older brothers and sisters.
The only problem for the skinny Adams growing up in New Zealand was his siblings were also giants, with his brothers averaging 206cm and sisters, including two-time Olympic gold medal-winning shot-putter Valerie Adams, standing around 183cm.
The Thunder, thanks partly to Adams being a pest, are on a roll in the playoffs.
With Adams blunting Griffin by bumping chests, heads and elbows, the Thunder staved off the Clippers in LA on Friday for a 118-112 victory, giving them a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven games second round of the playoffs.
In the first round playoff series against the Memphis Grizzlies the turning point came in the fourth quarter of game six, with Memphis just one win away from eliminating the Thunder.
Randolph and Adams were scrapping, then Randolph, the Grizzlies' defensive leader, elbowed the Kiwi in the stomach and then threw a right hand punch to Adams' jaw.
The NBA suspended Randolph for the deciding game seven, which the Thunder easily won 120-109.
"I don't care," Adams said about his reputation as a pest.
"I'm a rookie so I have to go out there and play my arse off.
"Whatever the coach asks me to do I go out there and do it and play as hard as possible and as best as I can.
"Apparently, I'm just annoying."
As far as settling into life in the US and the NBA, Adams is a beloved member of the Thunder locker room.
With his Kiwi accent and wide-eyed rookie personality, Thunder stars Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Perkins think he's hilarious even when he does not mean to be funny.
When Adams calls up for room service while on the road, he'll end up with prawn pasta instead of chicken because of his lost in translation accent.
His love of meat pies, however, has not waned, despite being rare to find in the US.
When he is told there's a great Aussie pie shop, Bronzed Aussie, just a few blocks away from the LA hotel the Thunder are staying at, his eyes light up.
"You're kidding me!" he says.
"Bro, I'm going to clean the place out."
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