Before the days of contact lenses and corrective eye surgery, players needed to wear prescription goggles to help them see. Standard glasses just aren’t practical with the physical nature of the NBA. Nowadays goggles are rarely used although they still remain in use in combination with an integrated facial mask.
Which Players Have Worn Goggles?
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
While playing for the University of California in 1968, Abdul-Jabbar had his cornea scratched. He’d have it scratched again in 1974 while playing for the Milwaukee Bucks which resulted in him sitting 16 games out. Despite having good eyesight, he would adopt wearing goggles because he didn’t want to lose his eyesight. He would develop corneal erosion syndrome resulting in his eyes beginning to dry out easily. Abdul-Jabbar would score the most points in NBA history (38,387) and with that, made his goggle trademark as popular as his skyhook shot.
Horace Grant
Grant made goggles his signature through the early 90’s. He suffered from nearsightedness and has stated that he was legally blind. Even after corrective surgery he continued to wear them to make them cool so that kids that needed to wear them would be inspired to. continue wearing them. New York Knicks’ player Charles Oakley would repeatedly knock them off during the 1991 NBA playoffs. He would wear them once again in Game 2 of the 1991 NBA Finals after a poor Game 1, which considerably improved his game.
Tony Parker
Tony Parker suffered an eye injury following a night out in New York. It resulted in shards of glass from a broken bottle entering his eye which he needed surgery on. As a result of a scratched cornea, he was required to wear protective goggles in the form of some rather fashionable black-rimmed glasses he used when representing France at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Amar’e Stoudemire
In the 2008-09 NBA season, Stoudemire would suffer both a torn iris following an incident in training. After the torn iris he thought he was blind, until eventually regaining vision and taking one month off the court. He would return wearing goggles before taking them off again. In that same year Stoudemire would cop an accidental eye poke from Al Thorton which disconnected his retina. He would end up getting operated on for 22-hours a day over ten days in order to reattach the retina back in his eye. From this day one Stoudemire would wear goggles for the rest of his career.
Ski Goggles
Although the use of goggles isn’t as popular as it was on court, off court you’re almost certainly going to see players wearing goggles. Not strictly limited to NBA players, it’s becoming increasingly popular across all sports that players wear ski goggles after winning a championship. Ski goggles are worn so that champagnes and other liquids don’t get into players eyes. It also prevents the bottle’s cork from popping in their eyes which can run the risk of permanent eye damage and lead to blindness. Champagne itself can cause eye irritation but corks can shoot at speeds of around 50mph (80kmh) and can take being blind drunk to a whole new level.
NBA Disposable Face Masks
Unfortunately the most popular NBA face masks of 2020 and 2021 are in disposable form.It all began following Rudy Gobert contracting
COVID-19 which meant the suspension of the 2019-20 season. The season would ultimate resume with the 2020 NBA Bubble.
As a part of player safety protocols in efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic, the league requires all players to wear KF94 or KN95 masks. The KF94 disposable face mask can filter up to 94% of airborne contaminants. The KN95 varies in which it has a metal nose wire and ear loops and can filter out 95% of contaminants.
The masks have proven somewhat successful as the 2020-21 season would resume to a reduced 72-game schedule.