For Jason Terry, everything changed in 1997. It was the night before the NCAA national championship game and Terry\u2019s Arizona Wildcats were set to take on the University of Kentucky. Terry shared hotels rooms with teammate Mike Bibby on road trips and the pair understandably had trouble sleeping before the biggest game of their lives so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike Bibby and I were anxious for the game,\u201d Terry says. \u201cSo, we both put our full uniforms on \u2013 socks, everything. And we slept in them. The next day, we ended up winning the national championship. After that, I was like, \u2018OK, I think I\u2019m superstitious and I need to keep this thing going.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
When it comes to basketball and superstitions, there may be no clearer expert than Terry. He has won at every level of the game: as well as his college title he became an NBA<\/a> champion with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. He\u2019s also seemingly embraced quirk after quirk, both on and off the court.<\/p>\n In college, he started to wear long, high socks with \u201cCATS\u201d \u2013 a reference to the team\u2019s nickname \u2013 written down the side of each leg. In the NBA, he continued the fashion statements, donning a headband every game to honor his former mentor and fellow Seattleite Slick Watts. But most striking of all, every night before an NBA game Terry put on the shorts of the opposing squad and wore them to sleep.<\/p>\n \u201cFor instance,\u201d Terry says, \u201cif we\u2019re playing the Miami Heat, I\u2019d wear the Heat shorts the night before each game.\u201d<\/p>\n But how would he even get the shorts? Well, he\u2019d go right to the source.<\/p>\n \u201cI would hustle equipment managers and see if they had an extra pair,\u201d says Terry, who was NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2009. \u201cI think the most famous shorts I was able to get was a pair of Utah Jazz shorts that belonged to John Stockton.\u201d<\/p>\n And how did he know they belonged to the NBA\u2019s all-time steals and assists leader?<\/p>\n \u201cNumber one: they were short,\u201d Terry says. \u201cNumber two: they had his No 12 on the inside tag.\u201d<\/p>\n Eldridge Recasner, another former NBA guard, played for a number of teams during his eight-year career, including stints as a starter with the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks in the mid-1990s. He says sleep and practice were important to him prior to a game\u2019s tipoff.<\/p>\n \u201cMy main thing was that I had to take a nap on gameday and do my same pregame warmup routine,\u201d Recasner says. \u201cThe nap was mandatory. And the ball-handling and shooting drills I did had to be the same routine all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n But more than any dribbling or shooting drills, Recasner says he remembered his father, Eldridge Sr, before each contest, too.<\/p>\n Jason Terry slept in his uniform before winning a national title with Arizona. Photograph: Ronald Martinez\/Getty Images<\/p>\n \u201cMy dad was in the Army,\u201d says Recasner, who is now a college basketball broadcaster in the Pacific Northwest. \u201cHe passed away when I was 18. So, I always looked at the flag during games. I counted off five stars to the right, five stars down, five stars to the left and five stars back up to the starting star and salute my dad. I still do it today as an announcer.\u201d<\/p>\n Tim Hardaway, who battled Recasner on the hardwood during the 90s, had his own superstitions. When he played at home, Hardaway says he\u2019d drive the same route to the game every time with no deviations. But when he was on the road, the five-time All-Star says, \u201cI ate the same thing every day \u2013 caesar salad with baked chicken and vegetables.\u201d<\/p>\n Superstitions have affected play throughout NBA history. Ray Allen would shave his head at the exact same time of day before every game. His fellow Hall of Famer, Michael Jordan, used to wear his University of North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform throughout his career. Rajon Rondo liked to shower five times on gamedays<\/a>. LeBron James used to clip his nails<\/a> during contests, while the sight of the star throwing clouds of chalk dust in the air<\/a> before tip-off became a familiar sight.<\/p>\n But some superstitions are even more specific.<\/p>\n