Normally, my stance on players with long hair in professional sports goes something like this: It’s a free country and all that, but just know what you’re doing might make you a target.
In the NFL, for example, it’s especially tantalizing for defenders when they see the long flowing locks of their opponent dangling out of the back of the helmet, and sometimes, if it’s the only option to make a play, they’ll grab the guy by his hair and drag him to the ground.
But in the NBA, it’s different because physical contact isn’t really encouraged. There isn’t a place in the game where grabbing a player — by his hair or anything else — is even legal, much less tolerated.
That’s especially true when a play is over, and has been whistled dead by the officials. But in the video clip above, you can see Tony Allen grab Kenneth Faried’s hair in frustration before he heads to the other end of the floor.
The Grizzlies like to use the words “grit” and “grind” as a motto to describe the way their team plays. That’s apparently just code for “dirty,” and something they’ll resort to when getting beaten by a lesser opponent at home, as they were by the Nuggets on Monday.
[via TBJ]
