Throwbackz: Headbandz



No one f*cked with Uncle Cliffy

Rockin' a headband in basketball is more than keeping the sweat out of your eyes or hair from getting in your face.  There's a certain swagger involved in it.  Melo wears his close to the eyebrows with the NBA logo to the side for a more hood-like streetball look.  Rajon Rondo used to wear it with the logo upside down, but David Stern didn't like that and threatened to fine Rondo and any other player that did it (WTF Stern!?!? I hate to say it, but stop being such a Jew!!!). Guys like Paul Pierce, Rip Hamilton, and LeBron James rock it straight forward for the more mature-game headband look, which is probably more a device to cover up a receding hairline more than anything.  Wilt Chamberlain wore one back in the day and so did Bill Walton, but Chamberlain did it 'cause he used to sweat like a wilderbeast (remember him in the Conan movie?) and Walton had the hippie hair. 

Now that's Slick.

Slick Watts was the true O.G. that brought out headband swagg, in the '70s for the Seattle Super Sonics. The headband is still in by today's NBA standards but didn't start to really catch on until the early 1990s when one Clifford Robinson came into the league as the Portland Trail Blazers inside scoring threat and enforcer.  Uncle Cliffy made the headband hardcore.  When you saw that bald-headed band clad bruiser come down with the rebound with elbows up, there wasn't nothing left to do but run down the other end of the court.  Allen Iverson made the head strap look cute for this young flashy generation, but I'll always remember it as the rugged look donned by Cliff Robinson.

Honorable mention:
Quentin Richardson
Rasheed Wallace
Jermaine O'Neal

How they keep that thing on all game?

Jason Terry
Glenn Robinson
Ben Wallace
Stephen Jackson
Chris Andersen
Sasha Vujacic
Boobie Gibson
Anyone that rocks the headband above their hairline