Minnesota Timberwolves, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Wolves have a below average number of tattooed players, but their percentage went up a bit from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Michael Beasley
Young Beasley, whose designs are among the most talked about in the league, described tattoos as both a language and a form of narrative for the Minneapolis Citypages: “I love tattoos. I feel like the era I’ve grown up in, tattoos are expression. Every tattoo I have has a meaning. Every tattoo I have is something I’ve been through.”
Wayne Ellington
Ellington has a tattoo on his inside right bicep.
Brad Miller
Miller has a tattoo of cartoon character Scrappy Doo.
Nikola Pekovic
Pekovic’s tattoo of a knight standing atop a heap of skulls is one of the best-loved tattoos in the league, inspiring a t-shirt, impassioned blog posts, and countless remarks that the design fits his game perfectly. Timberwolves blog A Wolf Among Wolves got some great quotes from Pek about the tattoo (“It’s just me and my progress this year,” says Pek, “the drawing is something like me.”) and Sports by Brooks offers an interesting historic review of the tattoo’s potential relationship with the history of Pekovic’s homeland, Montenegro.
Anthony Randolph
Tattoos peek out of both sides of Randolph’s uniform.
Ricky Rubio
Much like fellow Spaniard Rudy Fernandez, Rubio’s only tattoo is a Chinese character on his wrist.
Martell Webster
Webster has tattoos on both arms.
Players without tattoos:
J.J. Barea
Wes Johnson
Malcolm Lee
Kevin Love
Darko Milicic
Luke Ridnour
Anthony Tolliver
Derrick Williams
Every Team’s Got One: Southwest Division
About one-sixth of NBA players have a tattoo of a basketball. It makes sense, lots of people commemorate their passions via tattoos: cyclists, chefs, shredders, LL Cool J. Still, what’s amazing is that every team has at least one player with a basketball tattoo, even the Hornets, who only have two tattooed players. Basketball tattoos range from iconic (Jordan jumpman; NBA logo), to narcissistic (Carlos Boozer’s self portrait), to symbolic (basketball wearing a crown, basketball meshed with a cross), to weird (Rip Hamilton’s gravestone). Going division by division, Every Team’s Got One will sort out the the highlights across the league, concluding here with the Southwest division. Click HERE to view other divisions.
Dallas Mavericks
Tyson Chandler:
Dominique Jones:
Houston Rockets
Courtney Lee:
Brad Miller:
Memphis Grizzlies
Darrell Arthur:
New Orleans Hornets
Trevor Ariza:
San Antonio Spurs
George Hill:
Richard Jefferson:
Houston Rockets 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 36% (5 players with tattoos, 9 without)
Obviously their major story this year has been Yao Ming’s absence, but slowly this story is transforming to the way this otherwise young team is coming together. More than half of the Houston Rockets are under 25, and while Luis Scola is still a major force, the players to watch are clearly the younger ones. Following the storyline of their tattoos, it’s obvious these guys have been through some trials, and rebuilding a post-Yao team seems like a walk through the park by comparison.
—
Players with tattoos:
Jordan Hill
While at college, the heavily tattooed Hill described his tattoos for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, including the tribute for his mother: “My mom passed when I was 3, so I got “in love and memory”, the year she was born and when she died, a basketball and a banner with her name in it, Carol. And on the bottom I got ‘Doing it for you.’”
Courtney Lee
A 2010 NBA.com article revisited the end of Lee’s freshman year of college, when his roommate and close friend Danny Rumph died from a heart attack. To commemorate their friendship, and pay tribute, Lee got a tattoo on his right arm.
Brad Miller
Miller has a tattoo of cartoon character Scrappy Doo.
Patrick Patterson
While still at Kentucky, Patterson had a Martin Luther King Jr. quote tattooed on his chest: “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
Terrence Williams
Another of the heavily-tattooed players born and raised in Seattle, Williams has a tattoo of the number 8 resting in a spiderweb, a reference to the Section 8 housing that he and Nate Robinson and their other friends grew up in, a tattoo that many of them have.
Players without tattoos:
Marqus Blakely
Chase Budinger
Goran Dragic
Chuck Hayes
Kyle Lowry
Kevin Martin: Martin is uninterested in tattoos, for several reasons: “I’m never going to get a tattoo. I don’t like needles, so I’m not going to let a needle on me. But I also want to be a clean-cut guy. That’s just how I am.”
Luis Scola: Once said tattoos are not cute (“no quedan lindos”).
Hasheem Thabeet
Yao Ming
Minnesota Timberwolves, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
The Wolves have a below average number of tattooed players, but their percentage went up a bit from last year.
Players with tattoos:
Michael Beasley
Young Beasley, whose designs are among the most talked about in the league, described tattoos as both a language and a form of narrative for the Minneapolis Citypages: “I love tattoos. I feel like the era I’ve grown up in, tattoos are expression. Every tattoo I have has a meaning. Every tattoo I have is something I’ve been through.”
Wayne Ellington
Ellington has a tattoo on his inside right bicep.
Brad Miller
Miller has a tattoo of cartoon character Scrappy Doo.
Nikola Pekovic
Pekovic’s tattoo of a knight standing atop a heap of skulls is one of the best-loved tattoos in the league, inspiring a t-shirt, impassioned blog posts, and countless remarks that the design fits his game perfectly. Timberwolves blog A Wolf Among Wolves got some great quotes from Pek about the tattoo (“It’s just me and my progress this year,” says Pek, “the drawing is something like me.”) and Sports by Brooks offers an interesting historic review of the tattoo’s potential relationship with the history of Pekovic’s homeland, Montenegro.
Anthony Randolph
Tattoos peek out of both sides of Randolph’s uniform.
Ricky Rubio
Much like fellow Spaniard Rudy Fernandez, Rubio’s only tattoo is a Chinese character on his wrist.
Martell Webster
Webster has tattoos on both arms.
Players without tattoos:
J.J. Barea
Wes Johnson
Malcolm Lee
Kevin Love
Darko Milicic
Luke Ridnour
Anthony Tolliver
Derrick Williams
Every Team’s Got One: Southwest Division
About one-sixth of NBA players have a tattoo of a basketball. It makes sense, lots of people commemorate their passions via tattoos: cyclists, chefs, shredders, LL Cool J. Still, what’s amazing is that every team has at least one player with a basketball tattoo, even the Hornets, who only have two tattooed players. Basketball tattoos range from iconic (Jordan jumpman; NBA logo), to narcissistic (Carlos Boozer’s self portrait), to symbolic (basketball wearing a crown, basketball meshed with a cross), to weird (Rip Hamilton’s gravestone). Going division by division, Every Team’s Got One will sort out the the highlights across the league, concluding here with the Southwest division. Click HERE to view other divisions.
Dallas Mavericks
Tyson Chandler:
Dominique Jones:
Houston Rockets
Courtney Lee:
Brad Miller:
Memphis Grizzlies
Darrell Arthur:
New Orleans Hornets
Trevor Ariza:
San Antonio Spurs
George Hill:
Richard Jefferson:
Houston Rockets 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 36% (5 players with tattoos, 9 without)
Obviously their major story this year has been Yao Ming’s absence, but slowly this story is transforming to the way this otherwise young team is coming together. More than half of the Houston Rockets are under 25, and while Luis Scola is still a major force, the players to watch are clearly the younger ones. Following the storyline of their tattoos, it’s obvious these guys have been through some trials, and rebuilding a post-Yao team seems like a walk through the park by comparison.
—
Players with tattoos:
Jordan Hill
While at college, the heavily tattooed Hill described his tattoos for the Arizona Daily Wildcat, including the tribute for his mother: “My mom passed when I was 3, so I got “in love and memory”, the year she was born and when she died, a basketball and a banner with her name in it, Carol. And on the bottom I got ‘Doing it for you.’”
Courtney Lee
A 2010 NBA.com article revisited the end of Lee’s freshman year of college, when his roommate and close friend Danny Rumph died from a heart attack. To commemorate their friendship, and pay tribute, Lee got a tattoo on his right arm.
Brad Miller
Miller has a tattoo of cartoon character Scrappy Doo.
Patrick Patterson
While still at Kentucky, Patterson had a Martin Luther King Jr. quote tattooed on his chest: “If a man hasn’t discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.”
Terrence Williams
Another of the heavily-tattooed players born and raised in Seattle, Williams has a tattoo of the number 8 resting in a spiderweb, a reference to the Section 8 housing that he and Nate Robinson and their other friends grew up in, a tattoo that many of them have.
Players without tattoos:
Marqus Blakely
Chase Budinger
Goran Dragic
Chuck Hayes
Kyle Lowry
Kevin Martin: Martin is uninterested in tattoos, for several reasons: “I’m never going to get a tattoo. I don’t like needles, so I’m not going to let a needle on me. But I also want to be a clean-cut guy. That’s just how I am.”
Luis Scola: Once said tattoos are not cute (“no quedan lindos”).
Hasheem Thabeet
Yao Ming
