24 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
FEAR THE BEARD
THE SURPRISING KEY TO GAME-CHANGING
PERFORMANCES COULD BE... FACIAL HAIR?STEPH CURRY 2017
The baby-faced assassin’s
new “beard” didn’t make
him look any less baby-
faced—just marginally
hairier. (Ayesha liked it,
though, so Steph kept it,
saying, “Happy wife, happy
life.” ) It didn’t hur t his game:
Curr y averaged 28.1 points
as the Warriors won 16 of
17 playoff games, avenging
the previous season’s Finals
loss to the Cavs.DAVID STERN 1998
The infamous lockout beard.
Did it work? Maybe. The 1998–99
season eventually star ted in
January, and teams played
50 games each. Was it prett y?
Let’s let the late commish’s
words speak for themselves:
“Sorr y, it was really ugly.”CHAN HO PARK 2009
Af ter bombing as a star ter, Park moved to
the bullpen in May—which coincided with
the beginning of his beard. As a reliever,
he had a 1.80 ER A as the Phils won the
pennant. Then he signed with the Yankees,
which meant saying goodbye to his facial
hair. He had a 5.60 ER A in the Bronx , and
his career ended af ter the season.LIONEL MESSI 2016kabbalah, so we will be able to
break our bad run.” In the final ,
Messi opened the decisive PKs
with a miss, and Chile won.BRIAN WILSON 2010
The reliever ’s beard, grown
during the Giants’ run to the
World Series title, was nothing
if not controversial. His
Wikipedia page says he was
“presumably dyeing” it from
the star t. Wilson, who gave up
only one run in 11 ⅔ innings in
the ’10 postseason, responded:
“ We play a lot of day games.
It’s tanned. It’s focused.”VIRTUALLY EVERY NHL PLAYER
THE PAST FOUR DECADES
Blame the Islanders’ dynast y of the early
1980s for the tradition of growing playoff
beards. Their ubiquity—everyone grows
them—makes it hard to quantif y how well
they work , but the fact remains: 93.8% of
players who par take in the postseason
each year don’t raise the Stanley Cup.BY MARK BECHTELIt’s a subtle distinction, but it’s possible the key to Celtics forward Jayson Tatum’s drastic
midseason improvement can be attributed to his beard: specifically, when it’s, in the words
of Twitter account @statmuse, “fully connected.” In the 42 games in which his sideburns and chin
hair were not blissfully united, he scored 21.5 points per game on 43.5% shooting (36.3% from three).
After that, he scored 28.6 ppg on 47.7% shooting (46.8% from three). Is there anything to the theory?
Well, changes in facial hair have led to changes in performance before...BEARD^
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[POSITIVE]IMPACT
[NEGATIVE]SCORECARDFROM TOP LEF T: GREG NELSON (TATUM ACTION); DAMIAN STROHME YER (TATUM HE ADSHOT); OMAR RAW(WILSON); AL TIELEMANS LINGS/GE T T Y IMAGES (PARK);
HENNY RAY ABRAMS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES SIMON BRUT Y (MESSI); YU TSAI (MESSI SITTING(STERN)); DAVID E. KLUTHO ; JOHN W. MCDONOUGH (THORNTON(CURRY); )EXTRA MUSTARD