It started as a joke.
Moments before warmups in Indiana on Monday night, in the midst of a 2-10 stretch of basketball, Kyle Lowry did what any good leader would do: he reached into his bag o’ tricks and pulled out a secret weapon more potent than an atom bomb.
80 percent cotton. 10 percent nylon. 10 percent rubber. 100 percent heart and hustle.
The headband.
Lowry was on to something special, clearly. He tugged at both ends of that Raptor Red symbol of excellence, stretched the band across his forehead and told his teammates that this strip of fabric would help change the energy in the locker room.
“Toss me one,” said Lou Williams, wise beyond his 28 years. Lowry obliged.
Moments later, the Toronto Raptors backcourt standouts emerged from the tunnel at Bankers Life Fieldhouse sporting the headbands. The gasp from the Pacers’ home crowd could be heard in Fort Wayne to the North and as far as Evansville to the South. Evansville.
When the final buzzer sounded more than two hours later, the Raptors emerged with a dominant 117-98 win, their 40th of the season (the earliest that mark has been reached in franchise history). Lou Williams finished with a team-best 24 points. Lowry finished with his seventh career triple-double (20 points, 10 assists and 11 rebounds), and his team finally looked something like the Raptors club that sat atop the Eastern conference for so long earlier this season.
Yes, it started as a joke. But by the time the game was over, the headband was no laughing matter.
Behind the power of the ‘band, the Raptors, for now at least, appear to have gotten over the hump, the losing ways and disjointed brand of basketball that fans had gotten used to over the past few weeks a thing of the past. And with the playoffs just around the corner, this win couldn’t have come at a better time. Simply put: this team was desperate for change. And that majestic strip of material was happy to provide it.
“You have to find something to make [the game] fun again,” said DeMar DeRozan after the win. “We can’t be too uptight, can’t get too down. We still have to have fun with it, and Kyle and Lou showed that tonight. Something like that can go a long way in carrying over to the game.”
DeRozan himself, it should be noted, rocked the headband for a brief moment during warm-ups before taking it off because it “ain’t my style.” He went just 6-for-19 from the field on Monday.
The near-magical power of headbands and other ritualized garments is well-documented. A recent study out of the University of Cologne—published in the respected journal Psychological Science—demonstrated that such ‘charms’ do, in fact, contribute to better performance.
“The observation that a superstitious thought or behaviour leads to subsequent performance improvement may help explain the prevalence and maintenance of superstitious thoughts and practices across eras and cultures,” the study notes. “And, with respect to truly outstanding performances, the present findings suggest that it may have been the well-balanced combination of existing talent, hard training and good-luck underwear that made Michael Jordan perform as well as he did.”
On Monday night, it wasn’t just the Raptors wearing headbands who were positively effected. Jonas Valanciunas continued the streak of killer play that kicked off when the world welcomed Jonas Jr. over the weekend, posting an emphatic 14 points and 12 boards—most of which was accumulated in the third quarter. And Tyler Hansborough was dunking with authority against his old team as the Raptors cruised to victory. Yes, the headband’s power knew no bounds Monday night.
Not that that should be surprising. Some astronomers believe that it wasn’t until the Universe donned a headband nearly 14 billion years ago that it achieved the density necessary to spark the Big Bang.
In the time of man, the headband became a symbol of power, worn by the Pharaohs in Egypt and the demagogues in Ancient Greece. Centuries later, Wilt Chamberlain brought the headband to the hardwood, and proceeded to demolish NBA record books. Soon after it was perfected by myriad champions of their respective fields.
However, in more recent years the headband’s reputation suffered a series of devastating blows that few thought it would ever recover from. Until, of course, this happened.
As for Lowry, he says the headband was a one-time thing, a magic elixir that may have just saved the Raptors’ season.
All of which begs the question: Is it going too far to say that a stylish piece of fabric alone can shift the fortunes of an entire franchise?
No. No, I don’t think it is.