The NBA, next to it’s chief outfitting sponsor, Nike has banned the use of it’s “ninja” headbands. The ninja headbands caught on last season and were a huge hit among many players. These players include De’Aaron Fox, Jrue Holiday, Kelly Oubre Jr., Montrezl Harrell, and Jimmy Butler. They were one of many ballers to tap into the sensei power of the ninja headband.
I personally am very disappointed in this decision. The reasoning states that it was “unprofessional” and raises questions on the regularity of the length of the tie in the back, which arises safety concerns. This logically makes sense as no two players would’ve tied their headbands the same. However, no safety issues ever did arise over the course of the season due to the ninja headbands. Yes, they did look a little unprofessional, but that was the point. Players would go out and ball out dojo style, like outlaws. Playing on their own terms, balling by any means.
This is different from the NBA banning the Supreme shooting sleeves in 2018. Drip gods Kelly Oubre and JR Smith brought off -the-charts swag to the floor. These fresh sleeves weren’t in-code with the uniform regulations. It was an outside brand, it’s not like players are able to rock off-brand equipment outside of shoes anyways. They made JR cover up the “supreme” tattoo he got, which was too far. He knew what he was doing, and got a far more rude middle finger shot back.
Let’s hope the NBA, along with Nike, takes a second look at this wave and finds a way to let it back into the league in 2020-2021. They will most likely try to find a way to capitalize on the style. It is just utterly disappointing that they would put an end to this. LeBron James just posted an edited picture of himself taking up the ball wearing a ninja headband. We were about to get the best player in the world in the King himself riding this wave and it was glorious.
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