After keeping it even with the Denver Nuggets through three quarters, only to result in yet another heartbreaker for Dirk and the Dallas Mavericks, Nowitzki felt it was time to break out the clippers (no, not those Clippers, Dallas doesn't get a second freebie from them until late January), prompting the following tweet:

@swish41 Dirk Nowitzki
It was time for my annual BUZZ CUT. Hair was really annoyine me and I needed a change after that brutal last game. Sorry ladies

I couldn't help it. He opened the door. I had to walk through it...

 

@Clintonite33 Clint Peterson
@swish41 Got a phone call from Oma, huh? ;o)

Sure it wasn't really the annual phone call from the homeland?

Personally, I like long-haired Dirk. The locks flowing out behind him when he runs the floor in transition just seem to make him look faster. Ya know, like those little lines that indicate something in motion in a cartoon?
Whether or not Gramma back home in Germany picked up the "telefon" to tell him he looked like a girl again I couldn't say.

There's also an actual blog post that asks if Dirk is better with long hair or short. Really, I kid you not.

But enough ribbing.
___

Dirk's seeming superstition that a change may do him and the fellas good got me to wondering, just how superstitious are these guys?

Caron Butler landed in the #2 spot on this list with the following:

 

 

"As recently as 2007, Caron Butler drank an entire two-liter of Mountain Dew over the course of every game he played, dating back to his days at the University of Connecticut. He'd drink half the bottle before the game and half the bottle during halftime, with the outcome being a sugar-buzzed Butler bolting up and down the sidelines like a greyhound chasing the mechanical rabbit.

  There's also his straw-chewing habit, which also has been curtailed. Ever since he was a teenager, chewing straws calmed him down, and in his pro career (up until this past season) he's always chewed 12 per game. Now, according to league rules, he can only chew them on the sidelines. I suppose that's enough to keep him calm, and without the soda buzz there may be less calming to do, anyway."

Jason Terry topped Butler on that particular list of odd athlete habits, but the description of The JET's strange superstitions was better on this list where he comes in at #6, which may be even more impressive since it's an international list of oddities:

"Easily the most superstitious player in the NBA, Dallas Maverick shooting guard Jason Eugene Terry’s list of quirks includes eating chicken before games like Wade Boggs and wearing five pairs of socks while playing, but the 32-year-old’s most bizarre habit occurs while he’s sleeping. The night before every game, Terry goes to bed while wearing the shorts of the next day’s opposing team. This compulsion has left JET desperately tracking down the right trunks on a bad night, but a network of equipment managers and fellow players usually hook Terry up."

 

Jason Kidd? He used to blow kisses to his wife before free throws, but now there's only this:

"The only superstition I have is that I eat the same thing when I am on the road before each game - grilled cheese!"

via www.atech.org

 

 

I drew a blank on Brendan Haywood...

"A lot of people have their different superstitions. I'll eat whatever I feel like eating that day. I might take a nap. I might not. It just depends on what's going on. I might catch a good episode of 'Law & Order.' I don't have anything I feel like I have to do every day. I don't believe in superstitions."

...but I don't think he can hold out forever with all the pregame rituals and superstitious Mavs around him. Maybe he should grow some sweet facial hair or something like Drew Gooden.

via chicagoist.com

On second thought, maybe not.

 

Anyway, good luck with the new aerodynamics, Dirk. Here's to another short-haired MVP season.