Heckling 101 / JJ Redick's Hair Styling Secrets

Last night I was lucky enough to get free courtside seats for the Pacers Magic game at Conseco Fieldhouse, and as always my friend Ryan went above and beyond his duty as a Pacers fan to heckle the visiting team.

At one point in the game, Ryan was trying to remember if J.J. Redick had won a national championship while playing at Duke, which prompted the guy next to us to look it up on his smart phone. Turns out he didn't win a championship, but that's besides the point. While the guy was looking this up, he came across a Q&A on Redick's website in which he describes how he styles his hair. Here's his secret:

Question: Sort of a random question here, but what the heck. What kind of hair product do you use to keep your hair in place all game?

Answer: Very funny question. And it’s a question that people ask me all the time. The truth is I use very little product but instead rely on a simple, yet effective procedure. I take a little bit of stick wax and rub it on my palms and fingers. I run my hands thru my a few times then take a towel (this is the key) and rub the towel over my hair for two or three seconds. The towel leaves my hair in a messy “fro” but it gives me something to work with. Then I style my hair accordingly. All in all the process takes 30 seconds to a minute.

Of course, Ryan immediately worked this into his heckling arsenal. The next time Redick was near us on the court Ryan shouted, "Hey JJ! Is that some stick wax you got in your hair?!?"

The play had yet to start so Redick turned towards us and shouted, "Yeah! But it isn't on a stick, it comes in a can! It lasts about two days!" That's most definitely paraphrased, by the way.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until today that I discovered that Redick is an aspiring rapper. That would've been some pure gold for last night's heckling.

Wade Turns Up the Heat in Indy

Tonight I had the pleasure of witnessing a 43-point performance by Dwyane Wade in a 105-96 overtime win against the Pacers. Typically I get to Pacers games early before they start checking ticket stubs for the lower section, but bad traffic led to us arriving shortly before tip-off. We nearly eluded an old guy who was checking some other people's tickets, but dude took his job seriously and chased us down. Even if we had escaped that diligent old man, it would have been tough to find vacant seats because this weekend's Final Four in Indianapolis brought in a considerable crowd for the oft-empty Conseco Fieldhouse. Normally I wouldn't mind sitting in the nosebleeds, but it would've been nice this time to see Dwyane Wade do stuff like this from up close:



And that was just one of many highlight worthy plays by Wade.

Michael Beasley struggled yet again as my faith in him continues to fade. I really want to believe in the kid, but he just doesn't seem to quite get it. He did come out strong at the beginning of the game with a few encouraging plays, including this drive on Troy Murphy AKA Big Ugly:



But overall, the self-proclaimed Supercool Beas was pretty disappointing. He and Haslem couldn't contain Big Ugly, who finished the game with 29 points and 15 boards! Also, Big Ugly had the runner-up for play of the game with this put back dunk:



It was a great game to see, especially since the two Heat games I went to last season at Conseco Fieldhouse were losses. And one of them was a heart breaker that ended with a would-be game winner by Wade that just rimmed out. This time around, Wade sealed the deal in OT with consecutive three-pointers that had me grimacing upon their release, but celebrating after they dropped. The victory extended the Heat's win streak to seven games and moved them ahead of Milwaukee for the 5th seed.

Heat end Conseco Fieldhouse drought

The Heat were finally able to end their streak of 14 regular season losses at Conseco Fieldhouse (two of which I attended last season) with a 96-83 victory against the Pacers. The win was also Dwyane Wade's first win in Indiana, after losing his first 11 visits. Pretty much everyone on the Heat contributed, except for Daequan Cook who had an off shooting night. J.O. continues to impress after another big game against his former team. He put up the same numbers he did against the Knicks with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Dwyane Wade made scoring 32 points look easy, getting buckets by hitting jumpers, posting up, and getting to the line. While Quentin Richardson has been relatively quiet on offense in his first two games with the Heat, his defense on All-Star Danny Granger was encouraging. I forgot to mention in my post about the Knicks game that Udonis Haslem has finally lost his starting power forward spot to Michael Beasley, and thus far he's continued to produce. At some point Beasley's talent had to trump Haslem's productive yet limited game. You got to love Udonis for being such a dedicated player and coming off the bench with no complaints and a consistent effort. Then again, he is in a contract year. Speaking of Haslem, he had the play of the game making a poster out of Solomon Jones. The 2-0 start is definitely encouraging, but the Heat has yet to face any real competition and I can't help but wonder if O'Neal can continue to produce like he has these first two games.


Here's the aforementioned Haslem dunk on Solomon Jones. Pretty nasty.