Phoenix Suns pledge no-shave playoff push during final weeks of regular season
Mar 29, 2014, 9:33 PM | Updated: 9:33 pm
PHOENIX — Hockey players do it all the time.
Basketball players not so much. Suns players, well, there has never really been a reason to.
But this season is different. So, why not do something different? Why not pledge to not shave until the playoffs?
“Sometimes you just got to not worry about how things look and just go out there and try to get results. I think for us it’s just something else,” Channing Frye said. “Is it going to help us win or lose? Hell no. But it’s something that brings us together and hopefully more guys do it.”
With nine games remaining, the Suns (44-29) sit seventh, a half-game better than Memphis (43-29) and only a game-and-half back of Golden State (45-27), in the Western Conference.
Not much was expected of the Suns this season, but they have put themselves in position to make the playoffs for the first time in four years.
The no-shave playoff push is about a week old, leaving many players well past the 5 o’clock shadow look.
“(My wife is) not a fan, but she understands it’s a purpose to do it,” Frye said. “She likes me clean-shaven.”
Goran Dragic is dealing with the same issue at home.
“Wife is not too happy. I’m not too happy. It’s itching me all the time,” he said. “But we’re a family here; a team. We said everybody is going to let it grow until the playoffs. So far it’s working.”
The Suns, after routing the New York Knicks on Friday, have won a season-best six straight games, the second-longest active streak in the NBA.
So, who can and who cannot grow a beard on the Suns?
“Probably I got the worse. I got hair and then nothing and then hair. I’ve got all those spots,” Dragic said. “Archie (Goodwin), he doesn’t have much. Alex (Len), he just has that Mexican mustache.
“Maybe the beauty is suffering, but at the same time the whole team is doing it.”
Well, almost the whole team.
The players are on board. The trainers, equipment and video staff are all taking part, but thus far the front office and coaches have not chosen to put their razors away.
“No,” head coach Jeff Hornacek said with a smile. “Doing what I’ve been doing. I’m not changing up.”
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