Surfer Dirk
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Duration: The start of the 2009-10 season
Signature moment: This game winner against Charlotte.
Why this is his greatest look: I think it's important to go back to the moment Dirk revealed these breath-taking flowing locks. Skin Wade speaks the truth in this important video right here (despite his own questionable hair choices), that this hair needed to stay for Dirk.
Some deductive reasoning makes you think this hair is a direct product of his Australian sabbatical. For a few years, he'd show up looking like Owen Wilson in, well, pretty much any of his movies. Usually, the buzz cut would follow shortly, but in 2009, this headband/hair combo stretched into the first months of the season. Just consider how intimidating it is for a seven-foot man with several pounds of glowing golden locks to hit you with a face up jump shot and then drive right at your face the next possession. Frankly, I don't know how anyone ever defended him successfully during this hairstyle.
- Tim Cato
Finals Dirk
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Duration: The 2011 championship run, especially the six Finals games.
Signature Moment: That Game 2 game winner, of course.
Why this is his greatest look: Nobody had any clue that was going to be the year it happened, and this hair shows it. I mean, Dirk has always believed that his teams have a chance at going to the NBA Finals because he's playing for them, which is true, but he made his haircut schedule a little more predictable. He buzzed it earlier in the year, knowing he wouldn't have to cut it again until after the season -- April, May, whenever that ended up being. As it turns out, it ended up being early June.
By then, it was ragged, shaggy and unkempt. The facial hair was all over the place. A second round exit would have meant a more timely haircut, but Dirk couldn't stop beating teams. With each win, his hair got just that much more unruly. He never planned for it like that, and it's a microcosm for why the 2011 Finals were so great -- none of it was planned. It just happened.
- Tim Cato