Changing your Name in Sports

I am going to have a little fun at my former roomates expense, J.R, or should I now saw Earl Smith III.  (Ok, yes this is incredibly weird, but back in 2004 Five Star basketball camp held in the Bronx at Fordham, J.R Smith was in fact my roomate for three days.  I dont know how this happend, he was getting drafted very soon, and I have absolutly no idea why this occured.  His boys would always be in my room, they ripped on me etc etc.  The only thing I will share is that he rang up an outrageous cell phone bill on my phone.  I dont recall what it was, but he was on my phone, which I let him use, for maybe six hours a day.  No joke.  Would Smith remember me?  It would be like if I asked you to recall a Star Trek episode you flicked on for a minute 15 years ago.  The answer is no). 

Anyway, J.R Smith recently got back from suspension and changed his name to Earl Smith III, his given name.  This, he thinks, will give him a fresh start.  I got to say, this is the dumbest idea you can possibly come up with.  William Peterson the former G-Men corner changed his name to William James.  He still sucks.  So, Earl, I mean who are you now DMX aka Earl Simmons, who also went by the name Earl.  Did you think by going by the name Earl you might impersonate a police offer at an aiport like Earl DMX Simmons did a few years back? 

So let me get this straight, the name Earl is going to get your life in order, and stop chucking up shots even though Carmelo and Billups are better than you?  Is it going to lead to an All Star apperance and a Championship for Denver?  Is it going to help the fact that you are an atrocious defender and only care about yourself?  Let me ask another thing, what if I had a job and I changed my name from Alex to Lexor.  I became Lexor Lewin because I thought it sounded cool and it would bring me a fresh start after maybe struggling at first.  How would the be precieved?  Probably negativly.  Only in sports I guess.

- Lew