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Why Do NBA Players Wear Masks and Ski Goggles?

NBA players wear masks to protect themselves from face or nose injuries and it allows them to play games while those injuries heal. Stray elbows are the most common injuries that require a player to wear a mask because of a broken nose, cheekbone, facial or orbital bones. Most masks are made from clear shatterproof polycarbonate and some from lightweight carbon-fibre.

NBA players also wear ski goggles especially after winning a championship so that champagnes and other liquids don’t get into players eyes. It also prevents the bottle’s cork from popping in a players eyes which can run the risk of permanent eye damage and lead to blindness.

Champagne itself can also cause eye irritation but it’s the speeds that a cork can fly at – around 50mph (80kmh) – that takes being blind drunk to a whole new level.

Which Players Have Worn Masks?

In 2012 after suffering a broken nose, Kobe masked himself into a superhero. He would switch away from the clear mask as it kept fogging up. Later that year, Kyrie Irving would become the next “Black Panther”, wearing a black mask to protect a broken jaw. LeBron James then became the next NBA superhero to wear a mask playing with a jet black carbon-fibre mask to protect a broken nose.

Richard Hamilton

Hamilton broke his nose twice early in the 2003-04 season after already breaking it in 2002. He’d end up wearing it for the rest of his career to avoid major nasal reconstructive surgery. Despite wearing the mask for nine-seasons and becoming his trademark, it’s not something that he enjoyed wearing.

“When you’re a kid and you go trick-or-treating and you gotta wear the plastic mask on your face, you only put it on when you’re at the front door of the home. You’re not wearing it as you’re running up and down the neighborhood”, Hamilton said. 

Kobe Bryant

The “Black Panther” mask owes it’s origins to the original superhero Kobe Bryant. In 2012, Kobe’s nose was broken by Dwyane Wade in the All-Star game and after wearing a clear mask for a few games he switched it up to something the league had never seen before.

During the game he’d swap it back to the clear mask due to discomfort after shooing 1-of-6 from the field. It would cost the Lakers as they went on to lose 88-85 in overtime against the Pistons.

LeBron James

The Heat-Knicks game in the 2013/14 NBA Season will be remembered for LeBron James playing “Black Panther”. Breaking his nose a week earlier against the Thunder, LeBron wore the mask to protect it after missing the previous game against the Bulls.

The Knicks would lose 108-82 with James scoring 31, grabbing four rebounds and four assists no doubt thanks to his new superhero mask. The black mask looked absolutely mint with the throwback Heat jerseys.

Kyrie Irving

Before LeBron James’ black mask heroics against the Knicks, New York again played villain. Kyrie Irving broke out the black mask later in 2012 against the Knicks following Kobe’s masking earlier on in the year.

The Knicks would end up beating Irving’s Cavs 103-102 however, but not before Irving went crazy. Irving would finish with what was a career-high 41 points, shooting 15-of-25 from the field.

Joel Embiid

Joel Embiid wore a high-tech mask following an orbital fracture during the 2017-18 NBA season. The sophisticated dynamic mask was made of both carbon and polycarbonate and was made with a set of goggles.

Embiid missed close to a month of basketball due to a broken left eye socket before returning for the NBA 2018 playoffs. He went full superhero mode as he destroyed the Miami Heat scoring 23 points along with seven rebounds and four assists.

Which NBA Players Wore Goggles?

The use of goggles isn’t as popular as it was during the 80’s and 90’s. Before the days of contact lenses and corrective eye surgery, players needed to wear prescription goggles to help them see. Standard glasses aren’t practical with the physical nature of the NBA but nowadays goggles are rarely used.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

While playing for the University of California in 1968, Abdul-Jabbar had his cornea scratched. He’d have it scratched again in 1974 while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks which resulted in him sitting 16 games out. Despite having good eyesight, he would adopt wearing goggles because he didn’t want to lose his eyesight.

He would develop corneal erosion syndrome resulting in his eyes beginning to dry out easily. Abdul-Jabbar would score the most points in NBA history (38,387) and with that, made his goggle trademark as popular as his skyhook shot.

Horace Grant

Grant made goggles his signature through the early 90’s. He suffered from nearsightedness and has stated that he was legally blind. Even after corrective surgery he continued to wear them to make them cool so that kids that needed to wear them would be inspired to. continue wearing them.

New York Knicks’ player Charles Oakley would repeatedly knock them off during the 1991 NBA playoffs. He would wear them once again in Game 2 of the 1991 NBA Finals after a poor Game 1, which considerably improved his game.

Tony Parker

Tony Parker suffered an eye injury following a night out in New York. It resulted in shards of glass from a broken bottle entering his eye which he needed surgery on. As a result of a scratched cornea, he was required to wear protective goggles in the form of some rather fashionable black-rimmed glasses he used when representing France at the 2012 Olympic Games.

Amar’e Stoudemire

In the 2008-09 NBA season, Stoudemire would suffer both a torn iris following an incident in training. After the torn iris he thought he was blind, until eventually regaining vision and taking one month off the court. He would return wearing goggles before taking them off again.

In that same year Stoudemire would cop an accidental eye poke from Al Thorton which disconnected his retina. He would end up getting operated on for 22-hours a day over ten days in order to reattach the retina back in his eye. From this day one Stoudemire would wear goggles for the rest of his career.

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