Nike and the league office faced swift and widespread criticism earlier this week when it was announced players would be banned from wearing the increasingly-popular “ninja-style” headbands in 2019-20. If the powers that be had contacted Robin Lopez, though, he's certain they could have avoided the backlash resulting from this silly policing of on-court attire.
Why? As the Milwaukee Bucks big man tells it, he's so un-cool that the sight of him wearing the head gear in question would have caused other players to ditch the trend. In typical Lopez fashion, he accidentally support that hilarious theory, too, by invoking Betty White in a joke that's both wildly played out and should never have caught steam in the first place.
“If the NBA really wants the Ninja Headbands done with, they should have asked somebody like me to wear them,” he wrote on Twitter. “It would be like seeing Betty White dab or something. The trend would be *dead* Think about it NBA.”
ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Monday that the recently league notified teams of the rule. According to NBA spokesman Mike Bass, the ban is in effect because teams “raised concerns regarding safety and consistency of size and length.”
Several marquee players donned the headband at times last season, including the New Orleans Pelicans' Jrue Holiday, Sacramento Kings' De'Aaron Fox, and LA Clippers' Montrezl Harrell. Indiana Pacers big man Myles Turner also wore it last season, saying the new style appealed to him because the headband made him “feel like a kid again,” he told Sports Illustrated.