The three most important NBA phenomena of the 21st century are, in some order: the player empowerment era, the three-point revolution, and everyone being named some form of Jalen. The first refers to the labor-driven idea that players control the league, not the executives, leading to superstars voicing their displeasure and switching teams more often than ever. The second was born from simple mathematics, as players collectively realized that shooting three pointers gets you more points. The final one is the newest, and arguably the most noticeable. Put bluntly, there are hella professional basketball players named Jalen (or Jaylen, Jaylin, and even Jaylon).
In fact, as of this writing, there are 15 different versions of that name all over NBA rosters, all of them younger than 30. This checks out, given larger societal trends. Per BabyCenter.com, the name Jalen peaked in popularity in the year 2000. The influx of baby Jalens in America eventually became adult Jalens in the NBA, some of whom are extremely nice with it. Five members of the Jalen/Jaylen/Jaylin/Jaylon cohort have already made an All-Star team, three have won a championship, and several others have established themselves as above-average NBA players. As their Gen Z brothers and sisters are placing footholds in the workforce, they’re doing the same, except their offices are places like Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center.
The Jalen/Jaylen/Jaylin/Jaylon wave has become so noticeable that people are writing songs about it. Musician and podcaster Rainey Ovalle went viral earlier this month for his hit song “Jalen Invasion,” which poses the question, Why are there so many Jalens in the NBA? The answer, unscientifically, is just that the name has become more popular. It’d be like asking why there were so many players in the ’90s named Michael, David, or Chris. But two things are undeniably true: It’s hilarious that this has become a defining meme of this basketball season, and all these players owe a debt of gratitude to 13-year NBA veteran Jalen Rose, who long ago declared himself the first-ever Jalen (his name is a portmanteau of his father’s name, James, and his uncle’s, Leonard).
Rose’s career peaked from roughly 1999 to 2003, in direct correspondence with the birth years of the NBA’s current Jalen crop. The first Jalen post-Rose to grace an NBA court was Jalen Jones, who played from 2017 to 2019. But more pertinent to this conversation, Jones was born in 1993, surely a result of Jalen Rose’s popularity as part of Michigan’s Fab Five. Perhaps there’s a form of nominative determinism happening here, in which parents named their kid Jalen in hopes that they too would become professional athletes. (For what it’s worth, there’s a slew of Jalen variations in the NFL as well, and a similar thing has happened with the name Shaq, albeit on a smaller scale.)