Naz “Big Nazty” Reid, with his medium-length dreadlocks, is encountering the same problem that every NBA player with that hairstyle faces at some point:
The damn hair-doodles don’t stay in their restraints.
We all saw this with DeMarre Carroll. We all saw it with Taurean Prince. We all saw it with Marquis Daniels. And now we’re seeing it with Naz Reid. Every time he rumbles into the paint and has bodies bouncing off of him, his hair just falls free and hangs in his face.
Reid’s hair was free-hanging until recently. But when you’ve purposely tied it back in some way, having parts of it getting into your vision is way more distracting than just having it all out there intentionally. As a long-haired human being of the male, basketball-playing persuasion, I know exactly what the struggles are. If I start the game with my luscious locks flowing in the breeze, I’m fine if my vision gets obscured a little bit. If I start the game with my hair tied back, and then some strands escape and hang in my eyes, it messes me up bad.
I have missed jumpshots because of this phenomenon. That’s how you know it’s bad. DownToBuck does not normally miss jumpshots (especially of the midrange variety).
The best course of action for Reid is just to let the hair keep growing until it gets to, like, Kenneth Faried length, and there’s no danger of it escaping. The worst course of action is to cut it all off in frustration. I would never, ever encourage a long-haired man to cut his hair. Ever. There’s primal power to be found in a man’s hair. That’s why I’m a scrawny weakling who will never dunk and who plays defense like a soggy paper towel tube.