The Trail Blazers may currently rank 24th in the NBA in three-point shooting percentage but #1 in quirky three-pointer celebrations. Seems a conversation between Patty Mills and Rudy Fernandez (Credit the inside story to CH Here) led to the creation of the “Three Goggles” hand sign players flash after each made three. Mills explains:
We started last year, but it wasn’t something we’d done all the time. Now it’s consistent. [Rudy] had an eye problem at the beginning of the year that he needed to get tested for, so it’s just a little inside joke. Pretty funny. Three-pointer goggles.
Since their creation the goggles have spread throughout the team. Here’s Rudy and Wesley Matthews showing the goggles in action:
The rest of the league is taking notice of the new move and nothing shows a teams quirks are being noticed like opposing players mocking them. The goggles officially got the ‘you annoy me’ endorsement from JR Smith of the Nuggets as he fired the goggles back at Blazers fans last week:
Marcus Camby let JR know on Twitter that the fans in Portland didn’t appreciate the move but that’s unlikely to stop Smith, or others, from mocking the Goggles and will only lead to Blazers fans embracing the move even more.
Fernandez already owns the NBA rookie record for three’s in a season so don’t expect him or the goggles to stop anytime soon. The team is jumping on-board with the craze by offering up t-shirts for sale at the Rose Garden (as modeled by Nicolas Batum):
And masks:
While the Trail Blazers have faced their share of rough going this season the team looks to be having fun playing basketball and coming together as a group which has to give Rip City fans a reason for optimism. And besides, if things look bad they can always slap on some three goggles, those make everything look good.
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