Headband Gary Trent Jr.
Sometimes something as little as a headband could completely change how a player performs. In the case of Gary Trent Jr, that exact situation may have just happened. The Toronto Raptors guard was going up against his former team, the Portland Trail Blazers, not too long ago. During that game, he was only able to hit four of his 15 shot attempts for a measly 13 points. The Raptors as a team only mustered 34 points in the first half and wound up losing by nine in the end.
So, what did Trent do? He decided to put on a headband for their next game and he hasn’t looked back since then. In that first game with the headband on, Trent popped off for 32 points including five three pointers. He followed that up by dropping 32 points and six three pointers in the game after. He wasn’t done yet, dropping 33 points, five steals and five more three pointers the next contest. To top it all off, he continued his hot streak by dropping 31 points and nine threes most recently. Since he has placed that headband on, the man simply doesn’t miss from behind the arc.
Fans are quickly starting to catch on and have been nicknaming him “headband Gary.” This stretch isn’t just a phenomenal couple of games for a man with a headband, but it’s a stretch that no Raptors player has ever had in a long time. Not a single player on this Raptors squad has been able to score 30 plus points in four straight games since DeMar DeRozan accomplished this feat back in 2016. What makes this even crazier is that he had only broken the 30-point mark just three times in his entire career before this season.
Trent had obviously been peppered with questions regarding his hot streak and the connection with the headband but he doesn’t seem to be too interested at the moment. Well, not that he wanted to admit. One reporter had asked if he had any superstitions regarding his headband and he made it clear that he just wanted to focus on winning as many basketball games as he can. His full quote was, “I work on my craft no matter how I go on the floor, no matter how I look. I go out there to play hard for my teammates. And try to win as many basketball games as I can. Regarding my hair... it is clean, but you know, we’re going out there to win.”
These questions were asked just two days ago, right before Trent wore a headband against the Miami Heat and continued his streak by dropping 33 points in another Raptors victory. With his team benefitting from his hot hand and his stats taking a massive jump because of it, I think it is unlikely we see him take the headband off anytime soon. We can also look forward to him keeping this streak going for as long as possible. Who knows, maybe headband Gary will wind up going on a streak that hasn’t even been done before in the league up to this point.
