Something Different But Kings Related

eleventy

eleventy

Prospect
They say that puzzles, (crossword, suduku, ect) help ward off alzheimers and other memory related diminishments.

So, I thought I'd throw out a brain teaser,

Here it is:

I want you to name the two players I am thinking of, using the clues provided (you can also use the clues to determine if your proposed answer is correct or incorrect)

I'm thinking of two athletes, same sport, one active and one retired, two rings between them and both athletes have played on at least one team on the east coast, the west coast and the heartland.

Last names only.

Both are seven letters. Each begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters are different from each other.

The four interior letters are the same four letters in the same order in each name, with one small exception, which is that the two most interior letters are reversed in one of the names.

Who are these two athletes?
 
eleventy said:
They say that puzzles, (crossword, suduku, ect) help ward off alzheimers and other memory related diminishments.

So, I thought I'd throw out a brain teaser,

Here it is:

I want you to name the two players I am thinking of, using the clues provided (you can also use the clues to determine if your proposed answer is correct or incorrect)

I'm thinking of two athletes, same sport, one active and one retired, two rings between them and both athletes have played on at least one team on the east coast, the west coast and the heartland.

Last names only.

Both are seven letters. Each begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters are different from each other.

The four interior letters are the same four letters in the same order in each name, with one small exception, which is that the two most interior letters are reversed in one of the names.

Who are these two athletes?
Click to expand...
I think we need another hint here, like at least the sport?
 
I’m a big puzzle guy and appreciate the out of the box thinking on the forum (although maybe should go into a different folder than Kings Rap). Anything to take my mind off the actual product on the court. I will give this some serious thinking.
 
TaxMan said:
I’m a big puzzle guy and appreciate the out of the box thinking on the forum (although maybe should go into a different folder than Kings Rap). Anything to take my mind off the actual product on the court. I will give this some serious thinking.
Click to expand...

I'm tech-ignorant, but i was hoping someone could find a way to solve this using AI.
 
eleventy said:
I'm tech-ignorant, but i was hoping someone could find a way to solve this using AI.
Click to expand...
Since you went there I will admit I actually did put it into 4 of the better known AIs.

It stumped ChatGPT, CoPilot, and Gemini while Grok completely froze up searching for answers and I shut the window down after 15 minutes.

CoPilot seemed to be the closest but still had nothing that fit all the rules.
 
I've got more of these, but not all are Kings related.

the "Kings" part of the answer is "Kevin Huerter"

should be easy to get the other (retired nba player with 2 rings)

another hint - the rings were gotten with two different teams

and

you know from the question that the other name must be #uret##
 
Both are seven letters. Each begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters are different from each other.

The four interior letters are the same four letters in the same order in each name, with one small exception, which is that the two most interior letters are reversed in one of the names.
Click to expand...

So both names are actually 6 letters each then?
 
eleventy said:
I've got more of these, but not all are Kings related.

the "Kings" part of the answer is "Kevin Huerter"

should be easy to get the other (retired nba player with 2 rings)

another hint - the rings were gotten with two different teams

and

you know from the question that the other name must be #uret##
Click to expand...
I used co-pilot... again
Earl Cureton
There is no way I'd have come up with that on my own. I bet there are 5 posters on the board who might recognize that name.
@Mr. S£im Citrus and @bajaden and who else.
 
QWERTYLICIOUS said:
If that is the correct answer (and I only assume that it is), then yeah...I stood very little to absolutely no chance at all!
Click to expand...
While I am not a huge fan of generative AI outside of personal use, this use case I'm actually onboard with. With the caveat it was going nowhere until I got Huerter's name. Perhaps if I had let Grok keep running it would have done better. I sort of doubt it though.
 
now i'm confused...

hrdboiled asked if they were each six letter last names.

no - they are each seven letters

H U E R T E R (seven)

and

#uret## (seven)

hrdboiled - have you been drinking?

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pdx says he used co-pilot and got it (but i read his answer as "blacked out")

you said: "... if i got the correct answer..."

but if it matches all the clues in the question, you should KNOW you have the right answer

i'm going to assume that you got it but are trying to allow others the chance

you said almost no one would remember this player - not sure about that

he wasn't a "star", but he did play 12 years in the nba (and won at least two rings)

i just looked up his stats and they are odd - i'm going to divide his career into two parts

Part 1

first year is "played in other pro league" (probably Europe) - he was a third round pick, so, normal

in his first nba year (in east coast city) they go to EC finals and lose

second year they get to Championship round but lose

third year, in a Finals rematch they finally get rings

in these three years he averages 12-15 minutes per game (but on a REALLY GOOD team)

then he goes to a midwest team (as a free agent) and THEY go to the playoffs all three years before he is traded again (winning only one series)

in these years he is a solid rotation guy, 20-25 minutes per game

the first of the three years, he shows up on leaderboards:

that year, he is 8th in defensive rebounds and 9th in total rebounds (but this is per 36 minutes)

after those six playoff seasons, comes a long playoff drought

first he signs with another midwest team but is traded midseason to a west coast team where he plays one and a half years

then he goes to another east coast team for a season (at age 31) and it looks like his nba career is over

Part 2

he goes to europe and plays for a year.

then it's back to that second east coast team for 9 games at (age 33, two ten day contracts)

many ten day contracts /waived follow - he never gives up

then it's back to europe for two years

now he's 36 and looks done

but another midwest team signs him and although he hardly plays, they win the championship and he gets a second ring.

he plays only 2 regular season games (15 minutes per) - i'm guessing this is like when PJ Brown joined Boston just before their playoff run.

but in the three playoff series', he plays half the games (10 of 19), averaging 10 minutes per game (played) but this is also a championship team.

the next year, they repeat but he is injured and doesn't play at all (missed chance for a third ring - or DID he?)

although he never "played" in that second championship season, he was not released until AFTER the season (so maybe he GOT a third ring)

then he goes back to Europe for another season

incredibly, the Raptors sign him (at age 39) but he averages only 5 mpg in only 9 games and now he IS done. retires

and after all that his total nba earnings barely top a million

which is probably why he had to keep working.

npr did an interview with him a few years ago focusing on his work with the Detroit Boys/Girls clubs at a historic location

that led me to create this riddle (his npr interview was at the height of Huerter's Kings career)

He died in 2024

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This turned out to take longer than i expected, but it was worth it - i like to think that after you die, when someone thinks of you, it sends some kind of pleasure jolt, no matter where you are - I hope The Twirl got that jolt.
 
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pdxKingsFan said:
While I am not a huge fan of generative AI outside of personal use, this use case I'm actually onboard with. With the caveat it was going nowhere until I got Huerter's name. Perhaps if I had let Grok keep runni current NBA playerng it would have done better. I sort of doubt it though.
Click to expand...

AI appears to be "how you use it"

in this case (having NO experience using any of those AI search engines), i think i would begin by asking AI to give me a list of all current NBA players with seven letter last names who have played for the Kings. Then I would look at that list (which should be short) and try to determine which one it was.

as you said, once you have Huerter, it's easier to get the other guy (using the question as a formula)

if you didn't know that the west coast team was "the Kings", it would be more difficult.
 
eleventy said:
AI appears to be "how you use it"

in this case (having NO experience using any of those AI search engines), i think i would begin by asking AI to give me a list of all current NBA players with seven letter last names who have played for the Kings. Then I would look at that list (which should be short) and try to determine which one it was.

as you said, once you have Huerter, it's easier to get the other guy (using the question as a formula)

if you didn't know that the west coast team was "the Kings", it would be more difficult.
Click to expand...

I’d argue it took longer than you expected because your description was a bit muddy.

“Both are seven letters. Each begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters are different from each other.”
 
iowamcnabb said:
I’d argue it took longer than you expected because your description was a bit muddy.

“Both are seven letters. Each begins with a consonant and ends in a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters are different from each other.”
Click to expand...

it may look "muddy" to you, but i was trying to make it complicated enough that there could not be "two" answers, so i added things like, "... and all six of those letters are different from each other", hoping that that would eliminate multiple "right" answers.

so, there was a method to my madness (or my mental handicaps)...

i'll try another one tomorrow
 
eleventy said:
now i'm confused...

hrdboiled asked if they were each six letter last names.

no - they are each seven letters

H U E R T E R (seven)

and

#uret## (seven)

hrdboiled - have you been drinking?

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

pdx says he used co-pilot and got it (but i read his answer as "blacked out")

you said: "... if i got the correct answer..."

but if it matches all the clues in the question, you should KNOW you have the right answer

i'm going to assume that you got it but are trying to allow others the chance

you said almost no one would remember this player - not sure about that

he wasn't a "star", but he did play 12 years in the nba (and won at least two rings)

i just looked up his stats and they are odd - i'm going to divide his career into two parts

Part 1

first year is "played in other pro league" (probably Europe) - he was a third round pick, so, normal

in his first nba year (in east coast city) they go to EC finals and lose

second year they get to Championship round but lose

third year, in a Finals rematch they finally get rings

in these three years he averages 12-15 minutes per game (but on a REALLY GOOD team)

then he goes to a midwest team (as a free agent) and THEY go to the playoffs all three years before he is traded again (winning only one series)

in these years he is a solid rotation guy, 20-25 minutes per game

the first of the three years, he shows up on leaderboards:

that year, he is 8th in defensive rebounds and 9th in total rebounds (but this is per 36 minutes)

after those six playoff seasons, comes a long playoff drought

first he signs with another midwest team but is traded midseason to a west coast team where he plays one and a half years

then he goes to another east coast team for a season (at age 31) and it looks like his nba career is over

Part 2

he goes to europe and plays for a year.

then it's back to that second east coast team for 9 games at (age 33, two ten day contracts)

many ten day contracts /waived follow - he never gives up

then it's back to europe for two years

now he's 36 and looks done

but another midwest team signs him and although he hardly plays, they win the championship and he gets a second ring.

he plays only 2 regular season games (15 minutes per) - i'm guessing this is like when PJ Brown joined Boston just before their playoff run.

but in the three playoff series', he plays half the games (10 of 19), averaging 10 minutes per game (played) but this is also a championship team.

the next year, they repeat but he is injured and doesn't play at all (missed chance for a third ring - or DID he?)

although he never "played" in that second championship season, he was not released until AFTER the season (so maybe he GOT a third ring)

then he goes back to Europe for another season

incredibly, the Raptors sign him (at age 39) but he averages only 5 mpg in only 9 games and now he IS done. retires

and after all that his total nba earnings barely top a million

which is probably why he had to keep working.

npr did an interview with him a few years ago focusing on his work with the Detroit Boys/Girls clubs at a historic location

that led me to create this riddle (his npr interview was at the height of Huerter's Kings career)

He died in 2024

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This turned out to take longer than i expected, but it was worth it - i like to think that after you die, when someone thinks of you, it sends some kind of pleasure jolt, no matter where you are - I hope Earl got that jolt.
Click to expand...

You posted a prompt where the first two sentences directly contradict each other and the third implies that you want two 6-letter names -- which evidently was not the case. The confusion in the first two sentences could have been cleaned up with punctuation and a parenthetical like this:

Both are seven letters. Each begins with a consonant. Each ends in a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters (after the first) are different from each other.
Click to expand...

That still would leave some uncertainty though in your third sentence since you state that there are 4 interior letters in each name when in actuality a 7 letter word has 5 interior letters not 4. Not to mention, if it is a 7 letter word with 5 interior letters that means that there is either 1 letter in the middle or 3 letters in the middle, not 2. I also suspect that anyone who writes this way doesn't actually care whether other people understand them or not. Perhaps even prefers that they don't. But I have no way to verify that.
 
pdxKingsFan said:
I used co-pilot... again
Earl Cureton
There is no way I'd have come up with that on my own. I bet there are 5 posters on the board who might recognize that name.
@Mr. S£im Citrus and @bajaden and who else.
Click to expand...

I remember Cureton. You tend to recall the old school names when you first really got into the game at a young age. I probably even have his autograph on one of my game day hoops magazines I used to get at games during the first couple seasons at the original ARCO. I’d have to check.

I don’t think I’ve heard or read that name, though, in over 30 years.
 
hrdboiled said:
I also suspect that anyone who writes this way doesn't actually care whether other people understand them or not. Perhaps even prefers that they don't. But I have no way to verify that.
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your suspicions are incorrect.

the opposite is true (believe it or not)

perhaps you can help me formulate a better way to say this (unless you're just jerking my chain)

1) i think i was clear that "both names are seven letters" (you seemed to understand that)

i dealt with the seven letters by breaking them into two parts (the four interior letters - dealt with second AND the first and last two letters of each last name (2X3=6), totaling six letters, dealt with first)

2) i next said that three of those letters in each first name were as such:

the first letter in each name is a consonant and each name ends with a vowel followed by a consonant

3) here is where you got confused (perhaps i confused you - is there a better way to say this?)

"and all six of those letters are different from each other"

i was referring to the two sets (one set in each last name) of three letters (first letter consonant, last two letters vowel/consonant in EACH name - total: six letters)

i did this to eliminate "multiple correct answers" - if you were checking your answer against the question, well, if any of those six letters were repeated, you'd know you had an incorrect guess and you'd try different names.

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perhaps i should first have said, "let's divide these names into two parts."

"one set (which i will deal with first), consists of the first letter and last two letters of each name, a total of six letters (2X3). the first letter of each last name is a consonant (in each name) and the last two letters in each name are a vowel followed by a consonant and all six of those letters are different from each other (none of the six are the same letter twice)."

"the second set of letters is "the interior four letters of each name", these letters, (the four letters in each name between the first and last two letters in each name), those letters ARE repeated in both names. they are the same four letters in the same order (in spaces two through five - a total of eight letters between the two names) with one exception - in one of the names, the two MOST interior letters (spaces three and four) are reversed."

if you can find a way to say this that makes more sense to you, i'd welcome the input.

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if it seems complicated, it is because i wanted to eliminate the possibility of multiple correct answers, so i was extra specific.

what may have confused you is the last part where i said, "the two most interior letters" (perhaps i should have added, "... of the four interior letters in each name")

seven is an odd number - IF they HAD each been six letters AND i had broken them into two parts (say, a consonant beginning and ending each last name AND the four interior letters), then the "interior letters" would have been symmetrical (2 letters - first and last in each name) and 4 letters (spaces 2-5 of the 6 letters), but in this case, the result is asymmetrical, with the first set having only one letter prior but two letters AFTER (the interior letters).

this seems like a way to complicated way to say it, but remember, solving a puzzle or question first requires understanding the question itself.

other participants did not seem to have a problem understanding the question, but you got confused between the number of letters in each name (seven) and the number of letters in the "first part" (six - the first and last two letters in each last name, so, 1+2 equaling 3, times 2 = 6)

did you perhaps just read it once and assume you had it? if so, since you were clear that i said, "both are seven letter last names", when you got to "the first part" and found you were dealing with six, not seven letters, didn't you go back and look at the question again, to resolve an apparent (to your eyes) contradiction between six and seven (letters)?

how did you come to select "six letters in each name" in your question?

how did you resolve the difference between "seven" and "six" in (in your mind) - why did you choose "six" versus "seven"?

did you just rush to respond, even knowing that there was a contradiction - six letters? or seven letters? - actually it is seven letters (total) in each last name AND after i divided the names into two parts (the first and last two letters of each last name - total: six) being one part, AND the four interior letters in each last name (2X4=8) being the second part.

i feel like i am repeating myself, searching for a way to help you understand the question, but perhaps it is just a question of mental acuity.
 
Not sure if this will come up to begin a Page 2 (hope so), but I''m going to try another brain teaser...

This one is slightly different, because it is TWO pairings of "athletes", but ONE athlete is used in EACH (of the two) pairings.

That is, it would be A+B (pairing one) and A+C (pairing two)

So, you will be giving me the names of TWO pairings of which the same athlete will be used in each pairing (paired with a different athlete in each case).

Three athletes in total, one used twice, each time paired with a "different" athlete.

Sound confusing? Let's give it a try:

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pairing one (this one is Kings related):

I'm thinking of two athletes, both retired, different sports, one a HOFer the other not (but was originally thought to develop into a future HOFer), both five letter last names.

Last names only:

In this case, the first two letters of each last name are exactly the same (example: ab in one, ab in the other)

since the names are both five letters long, that leaves three letters (the last three in each name) to be described

those last three letters in each name are in the same format (in each last name)

that format is Vowel, Consonant, Consonant - AND none of those six letters are repeated (six different letters)

Who are these two athletes?

=====================================================================

bearing in mind that we are going to use one of the names in the second pairing also, here are clues to the second pairing:

pairing two

I'm thinking of two athletes, different sports, one active, one retired, one a HOFer, the other not, but with a different number of letters in each last name

First AND last names

First names first:

Both first names are five letters and four of the letters are the same letters in the same spots in both names

So, there is only one different letter in each first name (hint: the ""different" letter is in space number 2 and in one name it is a vowel and in the other, a consonant)

Last names:

since one of the names is repeated from the first pairing, we would assume that each last name must be five letters long

Not exactly

Because in this pairing, the five letter last name which is the solution to pairing one is contained WITHIN the second last name in pairing number two (thus, "a name within a name")

And I will tell you (although this may give it away) that the six letter last name is a consonant followed by the same five letters that compose the entirety of the other last name.

Who are these athletes?

===========================================================================

so, you are going to give me two answers

pairing one will be two last names that are each five letters

pairing two will be ONE of the last names from pairing one (a five letter last name), which can be found exactly as it is written within the OTHER last name, but with a consonant preceding the other five letters, making the second name a six letter name.

i hesitate to say this - actually i won't - i'll save it as an additional hint

so, who are these three athletes?

additional hint:

the two names that are used only once play the same sport (but one is active and the other retired).

have at it
 
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