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Latest Articles Cliff Robinson first started wearing a headband during basketball games nearly two decades ago, before it was a fashion statement. Robinson, now a 40-year-old power forward with the Nets, simply wanted to keep the sweat out of his eyes.

That did not spare him from heckling.

“I used to get killed,” Robinson said.

He heard comments like, “Take that stupid headband off,” or “You look ridiculous in that headband.”

“I heard a little bit of everything,” Robinson said.

Today, headbands in basketball are as common as high-tops and jerseys. Players wear them more for the look than to stop sweat. Off the court, they have become a part of urban fashion. And they are often a nice souvenir for fans lucky enough to catch one when a player throws his into the stands after a game.

Robinson was not the first player to don a headband, but he will take credit for being the man who made it cool again. Robinson said he was the only N.B.A. player wearing a headband during his rookie season with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1989.

“When you think back on it, it’s actually pretty cool to be the person who brought it back to where it’s not looked at as ridiculous,” Robinson said.

Most people seem to remember the former N.B.A. star Wilt Chamberlain as one of the first players to wear a headband. But the man who made a fashion statement out of it — albeit an unintentional one — was Donald Earl Watts, better known as Slick.

Watts spent six seasons in the N.B.A., from 1974 to ’79, most of them with the Seattle SuperSonics. And like Robinson, when Watts started wearing a headband, he was not in search of a modeling contract.

“I had sweat everywhere,” Watts said by telephone from Seattle, where he lives. “I could hardly see sometimes because I played so hard.”

Watts attempted to solve his perspiration problems as a sophomore at Xavier University of Louisiana with a primitive approach. He stuck duct tape around his bald head, producing an inevitable result after games.

“My skin came with the tape,” he said. “So that was pretty horrifying.”

But after seeing Chamberlain wearing a headband, Watts said, he searched for one. He found a black one in the women’s section of a small sporting goods store in New Orleans.

The result was better than Watts could have expected.

He said he first wore it in a game against Alabama State and scored 40 points, and “the rest is history.”

Watts became a folk figure of sorts. He wore it crooked, with one end higher on his head than the other, but that was more for comfort than to make a statement.

“I thought it looked funny,” said Rod Thorn, the Nets’ president, who played in the N.B.A. from 1964 to 1971. Thorn said headbands were not seen as hip during his playing days, although that never seemed to be an issue for Watts.

The headband became such a staple for Watts that when he was not wearing it one night, his coach, Bill Russell, made him put it on.

“When I wore it, I had a little style with it,” Watts said. “It was my little thing at the time. Everywhere I went with it I was a hit.”

Robinson said he wanted to wear a headband when he played at Connecticut, but his coach, Jim Calhoun, would not allow it.

When he got to the N.B.A., Robinson said, he asked the Trail Blazers’ trainer to get him some headbands.

“He must have thought I was joking because he took a little while to get them,” Robinson said.

When he finally received them, Robinson said, they were terrible. They had Velcro tabs on the ends that were used to fasten the headband around his head. He wore those for a couple of games before the trainer got him traditional ones.

Now, about half of Robinson’s teammates with the Nets wear headbands regularly.

They are everywhere. Some players wear them to keep long hair out of their eyes.

Some players have shown quirky headband habits.

The Detroit Pistons’ Rasheed Wallace has worn two headbands at once.

The Nets’ backup point guard, Marcus Williams, recently wore his headband so high on his head, it was practically slipping off. He eventually tossed it to the side of the court while bringing the ball up court. Williams’s headband style drew several curious stares and comments. He said he was just being silly.

Headbands are much more prevalent in today’s game than in Watts’s days in part because the league is much more visible, said Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies in the School of Cinema and Television at the University of Southern California.

Headbands originated as a part of 1970s fashion, Boyd said, but they lost their popularity in the ’80s and ’90s. When they returned, they were seen as cool partly because they were retro style, Boyd said. He added that he saw headbands return in full force about four years ago.

“Like a lot of things that serve a practical purpose, it can also be stylish,” Boyd said during a telephone interview.

That style can sometimes be misconstrued and cause controversy.

The Chicago Bulls recently fined their All-Star center, Ben Wallace, for wearing a headband, an act that defied Coach Scott Skiles’s rule against them.

“Some people do perceive it as a component of hip-hop style,” Boyd said. “And a lot of people have very negative attitudes about hip-hop, which they tend not to know a lot about.”

Watts said he had no problem with players who wore headbands for the style, though he had one message, “Don’t make a statement unless you’re bringing your game.

Warning
This headband can significantly reduce the risk of injury and impact forces to the head for children and adults in the sport of soccer
There is no protective equipment available that will eliminate all injuries due to impacts to the head
Any modification to this headband will change its effectiveness in absorbing and dissipating impact forces resulting in increasing the risk of injury.

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