“I had to add a little sauce to it,” Mac said, grinning. “When I was at Texas, people started calling me Mac … from there it just went world wide.”

However, the name change has little to do with branding purposes — although ‘Sheldon Mac’ does have a nice ring to it. Instead, Mac’s change was steeped in a personal desire to gain his own identity from his given name.

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“McClellan is my father’s name,” Mac said, “but I’ve got no relationship with him at all.”

Mac did not want to take his mother’s maiden name, Johnson, due to it being so common. Even so, Angel Johnson drove with her son to the Houston courthouse so that he could conclude the months-long procedure.

“[Family] agreed with me. They stood behind me and had my back. So my mom was in for it,” Mac said. “It was smooth. I didn’t have any distractions from anybody.”

Mac originally started the paperwork soon after graduating from the University of Miami, but remained busy trying to make an NBA roster. Last October, Mac realized his dreams when the Wizards signed him as an undrafted free agent. The move to Washington, however, delayed the change simply because he could not get back to Houston.

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During the mini-vacation, Mac returned home and renewed his Texas driver’s license and also stood before a judge to complete the name-changing process.

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Mac is aware of a similarly named player, Shelvin Mack of the Utah Jazz, but hopes the two will not be confused because the other player has a “K” at the end of his name. As far as his own teammates, there should be no confusion: Everyone uses his new name anyway.

“That’s just what people know me as. They just call me Mac. No one calls me Sheldon, really. Not the basketball people I know,” Mac said. “My little brother calls me Mac. My teammates call me Mac. My old teammates call me Mac.

“I didn’t like my last name, so I decided to change it.”

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