Dozens of players have worn face masks in the NBA over the years. Rip Hamilton broke his nose in 2003 and wore a face mask for the rest of his career, becoming his signature trademark. Clear masks? We’ve seen them time and time again. But the elusive black face mask we’ve seen so rarely? It’s a thing of legend.
The legend of the black mask in the NBA
The NBA won’t allow them anymore, but they can’t take away what we had.
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Kobe as the Masked Mamba — March 6, 2012
Remember when Dwyane Wade broke Kobe’s nose in a freaking All-Star game? Well, Kobe wore a clear mask for several games after that, but one of those cold nights in March, he switched it up to a black mask. He walked out onto the court looking some version of a superhero, something we had never seen before. It was perfect for Kobe.
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Bryant designed the black mask that night because the more common clear mask would get too foggy for him. He sadly only wore this for one half before claiming discomfort, but it was too late, the legend of the black mask had already begun.
Kyrie as the Phantom in the Garden — Dec. 18, 2012
Later that year, Kyrie Irving broke out the black mask after suffering a broken bone in his jaw. Creating his own chapter of the book, he wore the mask for just one game, dropping 41 points in Madison Square Garden with 17 of them coming in the fourth quarter.
Kyrie took the black mask and turned himself into a superhero that night.
LeBron as the Dark Knight — Feb. 27, 2014
But if an NBA player was ever truly a superhero, it was LeBron James the very moment he put on the black mask for himself. That night in February, he wore the black mask better than anyone who had ever come before him.
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The all-black Heat uniform. The intro lighting in the background. LeBron just generally being better than all other humans around him. I would watch an entire damn movie about black mask LeBron wreaking havoc on anyone who came across him.
LeBron had 31 points on 13-of-19 shooting, including this dunk literally out of a scene from The Dark Knight.
The NBA told LeBron after this game that he could no longer wear the black mask, and we haven’t seen a black mask in the league since. What do they know that we don’t know? Was LeBron turning into a Monstar right before our eyes? Was the combination of untucked Kyrie + his black mask too much as well? I do feel that the black mask should be reserved for only those that are worthy of it. Maybe the NBA thought so too. So if we never see one again on an NBA court, at least we’ll always have these stories.
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