The Wall Street Journal on "Three Point Goggles"

[SlyPokerDog]

Since we're all brushing up on the finer points of college basketball this week, here's a new vocabulary term to remember: "Three-point goggles."

As you'll see in the NCAA tournament this week, players on teams from Duke to Kentucky will celebrate three-point buckets by fitting themselves with pantomimed spectacles, the kind your kindergartener might make while pretending to be a superhero.

To make the gesture, players form the 'A-OK' sign over both eyes to form "goggles" with their thumbs and forefingers, and (to denote the change in the score) stick the other three fingers up in the air.

The goggles are the latest fad in a sport that's increasingly full of them.

The goggles started earlier this season in Portland as a joke. Patty Mills, a guard for the NBA's Trail Blazers, liked to tease teammate Rudy Fernandez about his poor eyesight. "I'd always give him a little bit—well, not a little bit, but a lot of grief for not being able to see," Mills said. In the first half of one particular game, Fernandez struggled from long range. Mills said he told Fernandez at halftime that he needed glasses or contact lenses—something.

After halftime, Fernandez hit a few three-pointers. He turned to Mills on the bench and brought his pointer finger and thumb together in a circle over his eyes, with his three other fingers extended upward. "It was like, 'I don't need glasses. I've got these three goggles that work perfectly,'" Mills said.

From Portland, the sight of all these college kids donning make-believe goggles is an unexpected sight. "It's kind of weird to see it catch on," Mills said. "It's cool when you see it. Like, oh, we had a part in that."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100...584014292.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLE_Video_Third

 

[The Professional Fan]

PTI is going to do a feature on the 3 goggles in the next 5 to 10 minutes. They teased it, and already admitted they don't know who started it but it's "sweeping through" the college ranks. Funny. Time to put these "goggles" to bed, Portland!

 

[maxiep]

I think our three goggles need a new prescription.

 

[EGame]

I think we should be banned from doing them until you know, we actually learn to make 3 point shots.

 

[chris_in_pdx]

I think we should be banned from doing them until you know, we actually learn to make 3 point shots.

repped for truth

 

[Wheels]

lol I still like them.. and I like that quirky stuff shows the comraderie of the players.

 

[andalusian]

How do you do a star-wars hand gesture? - to suggest lazer eye surgery, of course.

 

[Run BJM]

Jon Barry/Houston Rockets' 3 pt celebration hand sign was the funniest. They'd be throwing it up after EVERY 3 made in big time games back in the 2005 playoffs. Can't find any pics of it but they'd make the "OK" hand sign very much like the 3 pt goggles but hold it down at their waist like they're following through throwing a bowling ball.

 

[Wheels]

oh man I remember a celebration but I cant picture it in my mind for some reason.. now its gonna drive me NUTS

 

[jlprk]

Lenses. We have the frames, now we need the lenses.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Hey, they must be working. We're no longer dead last in the league in 3FG%. We've moved all the way up to 22nd at 0.345. Unfortunately, there is only one team who shoots the 3-ball worse than the Blazers that has launched more long distance bricks - the Clippers.

BNM