Houston Rockets, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 40% (6 players with tattoos, 9 without)
The Rockets raised their tattoo percentage just a touch from last year.
Marcus Camby
Canby has the Chinese characters for “strive” and “family” tattooed on his right shoulder. In an interview, Canby claimed to be one of the originators of Chinese character tattoos. When asked how he got on the path, he explained, “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of kung fu movies.”
Courtney Fortson
Fortson has tattoos on his right arm.
Courtney Lee
Lee credits his entire professional career to the guidance and mentoring of Danny Rumph, a promising point guard who died of a heart condition at the age of 21. The two met at Western Kentucky University, where Rumph’s positive influence kept Lee in school and focused on basketball. Following Rumph’s death, Lee designed a tribute to his friend, tattooed on his right arm. As described by Fran Blinebury for NBA.com:
“The tattoo on his right biceps is a drawing of his friend wearing his Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap on his head, with wings sprouting from his shoulders and holding a basketball with the No. 11 inside. A couple of other Western Kentucky teammates, Anthony Winchester and Elgrace Wilborn, have the same tattoo that Lee had sketched out.”
Marcus Morris
Morris was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 14th pick in the 2011 NBA draft. His twin brother, Markieff Morris, was taken by Phoenix with the 13th pick. This is the first year these identical twins have played apart, after years together in youth leagues, high school, and three years with the Kansas Jayhawks. They even had the same major (American Studies) at college. The pair also share identical tattoo designs, including one that reads “FOE” which stands for Family Over Everything; one that reads “Death is a Promise”; and one that reads “Twin Towers.”
Patrick Patterson
During his years at UK, 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.”
Malcolm Thomas
A U-T San Diego article written during Thomas’s years at San Diego State University discusses the player’s relationship with his daughter. One paragraph describes the tattoo he received several days before her birth: “Thomas had a tattoo added to his right arm, next to the one for his mother. It is a rose with “Mikeala” written beneath it.”
Players without tattoos:
Earl Boykins
Chase Budinger
Samuel Dalembert
Goran Dragic
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.”
Chandler Parsons
Luis Scola: Once said tattoos are not cute (“no quedan lindos”)
Greg Smith
No longer on roster:
Jeff Adrien: no tattoos
Portland Trail Blazers, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
I lived in Portland on and off for ten years. Despite it’s reputation as a place “where young people go to retire,” it’s not that easy a place to be young. For adolescents, there’s a serious curfew that’s been in effect for decades, allowing cops to stop young people on the street at night. Strict drug and alcohol laws, selectively enforced, helps encourage bar and nightclub commerce while giving lawmakers an excuse to shut down any party they’re not comfortable with. When I first moved there in 1996, there were signs everywhere for the city’s “anti-cruising” laws, which prohibited driving down the same street more than twice in an hour. Also there was no rap station when I moved there, not even an “urban” station that mostly played pop. The legend is that, when Rasheed Wallace was traded to the Blazers, he said there’s no way he’s moving to a city without a rap station. That year, Jammin’ 95.5 was born, playing commercial rap for the first time on Portland radio. It was shocking how mad it made people in the city.
I feel like it was this climate that birthed the late 90’s/early 2000’s so-called Jail Blazers, a team where maybe half the players had marijuana charges, Sheed rang up the bulk of his league record for technical fouls, Zach Randolph broke a teammate’s eye, and sadly fading vets like Shawn Kemp and Scottie Pippen seemed to look down on everyone. Suppression breeds violence. That Blazers squad was like the kids in Over the Edge, frustrated by the city’s suffocating anti-youth movement.
The team’s come a long way since then, hitting rock bottom before rebuilding. These days they’ve pulled together a squad of affable dudes that mesh with the city nicely. It follows that many of these dudes wouldn’t have tattoos. Portland in 2010-11 has a below-average percentage of tattooed players, and I think the city’s breathing a sigh of relief over that knowledge.
—
Players with tattoos:
LaMarcus Aldridge
While it’s notable that Aldridge has the most tattoos on the Blazers, it’s more notable that every one of his tattoos carries religious significance: praying hands, crosses, the text “KEEP GOD FIRST.” When asked about his collection, Aldridge simply replied, “Because I’m a man of strong faith. Strong beliefs.”
Marcus Camby
Canby has the Chinese characters for “strive” and “family” tattooed on his right shoulder. In an interview, Canby claimed to be one of the originators of Chinese character tattoos. When asked how he got on the path, he explained, “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of kung fu movies.”
Chris Johnson
Among his several tattoos is a basketball with his initials.
Wesley Matthews
To show his love for his mother, Matthews got a tattoo that reads “Dynamic Duo” for his eighteenth birthday. For an NBA.com article titled “Wesley Matthews: A Proud Mama’s Boy,” his mother recalled, “I wouldn’t let him get a tattoo until he was of legal age. He had little skinny arms then so it wasn’t a very big tattoo.”
Andre Miller
Miller has a tattoo on his back, too obscured by his jersey to make out.
Greg Oden
Oden entered the league with a tribute to his deceased best friend over his heart, as described by a New York Times piece.
Gerald Wallace
I love Wallace’s tiger tattoo. It’s great that one of the most energetic and excitable players in the league has a super-calm, un-roaring, un-threatening tiger on his shoulder.
Players without tattoos:
Luke Babbitt
Earl Barron
Nicolas Batum
Rudy Fernandez
Armon Johnson
Patrick Mills
Brandon Roy
Elliot Williams
Houston Rockets, 2011-12
Tattoo percentage: 40% (6 players with tattoos, 9 without)
The Rockets raised their tattoo percentage just a touch from last year.
Marcus Camby
Canby has the Chinese characters for “strive” and “family” tattooed on his right shoulder. In an interview, Canby claimed to be one of the originators of Chinese character tattoos. When asked how he got on the path, he explained, “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of kung fu movies.”
Courtney Fortson
Fortson has tattoos on his right arm.
Courtney Lee
Lee credits his entire professional career to the guidance and mentoring of Danny Rumph, a promising point guard who died of a heart condition at the age of 21. The two met at Western Kentucky University, where Rumph’s positive influence kept Lee in school and focused on basketball. Following Rumph’s death, Lee designed a tribute to his friend, tattooed on his right arm. As described by Fran Blinebury for NBA.com:
“The tattoo on his right biceps is a drawing of his friend wearing his Philadelphia Phillies baseball cap on his head, with wings sprouting from his shoulders and holding a basketball with the No. 11 inside. A couple of other Western Kentucky teammates, Anthony Winchester and Elgrace Wilborn, have the same tattoo that Lee had sketched out.”
Marcus Morris
Morris was selected by the Houston Rockets with the 14th pick in the 2011 NBA draft. His twin brother, Markieff Morris, was taken by Phoenix with the 13th pick. This is the first year these identical twins have played apart, after years together in youth leagues, high school, and three years with the Kansas Jayhawks. They even had the same major (American Studies) at college. The pair also share identical tattoo designs, including one that reads “FOE” which stands for Family Over Everything; one that reads “Death is a Promise”; and one that reads “Twin Towers.”
Patrick Patterson
During his years at UK, 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.”
Malcolm Thomas
A U-T San Diego article written during Thomas’s years at San Diego State University discusses the player’s relationship with his daughter. One paragraph describes the tattoo he received several days before her birth: “Thomas had a tattoo added to his right arm, next to the one for his mother. It is a rose with “Mikeala” written beneath it.”
Players without tattoos:
Earl Boykins
Chase Budinger
Samuel Dalembert
Goran Dragic
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.”
Chandler Parsons
Luis Scola: Once said tattoos are not cute (“no quedan lindos”)
Greg Smith
No longer on roster:
Jeff Adrien: no tattoos
Portland Trail Blazers, 2010-11
Tattoo percentage: 47% (7 players with tattoos, 8 without)
I lived in Portland on and off for ten years. Despite it’s reputation as a place “where young people go to retire,” it’s not that easy a place to be young. For adolescents, there’s a serious curfew that’s been in effect for decades, allowing cops to stop young people on the street at night. Strict drug and alcohol laws, selectively enforced, helps encourage bar and nightclub commerce while giving lawmakers an excuse to shut down any party they’re not comfortable with. When I first moved there in 1996, there were signs everywhere for the city’s “anti-cruising” laws, which prohibited driving down the same street more than twice in an hour. Also there was no rap station when I moved there, not even an “urban” station that mostly played pop. The legend is that, when Rasheed Wallace was traded to the Blazers, he said there’s no way he’s moving to a city without a rap station. That year, Jammin’ 95.5 was born, playing commercial rap for the first time on Portland radio. It was shocking how mad it made people in the city.
I feel like it was this climate that birthed the late 90’s/early 2000’s so-called Jail Blazers, a team where maybe half the players had marijuana charges, Sheed rang up the bulk of his league record for technical fouls, Zach Randolph broke a teammate’s eye, and sadly fading vets like Shawn Kemp and Scottie Pippen seemed to look down on everyone. Suppression breeds violence. That Blazers squad was like the kids in Over the Edge, frustrated by the city’s suffocating anti-youth movement.
The team’s come a long way since then, hitting rock bottom before rebuilding. These days they’ve pulled together a squad of affable dudes that mesh with the city nicely. It follows that many of these dudes wouldn’t have tattoos. Portland in 2010-11 has a below-average percentage of tattooed players, and I think the city’s breathing a sigh of relief over that knowledge.
—
Players with tattoos:
LaMarcus Aldridge
While it’s notable that Aldridge has the most tattoos on the Blazers, it’s more notable that every one of his tattoos carries religious significance: praying hands, crosses, the text “KEEP GOD FIRST.” When asked about his collection, Aldridge simply replied, “Because I’m a man of strong faith. Strong beliefs.”
Marcus Camby
Canby has the Chinese characters for “strive” and “family” tattooed on his right shoulder. In an interview, Canby claimed to be one of the originators of Chinese character tattoos. When asked how he got on the path, he explained, “I was into a lot of Chinese flicks, a lot of kung fu movies.”
Chris Johnson
Among his several tattoos is a basketball with his initials.
Wesley Matthews
To show his love for his mother, Matthews got a tattoo that reads “Dynamic Duo” for his eighteenth birthday. For an NBA.com article titled “Wesley Matthews: A Proud Mama’s Boy,” his mother recalled, “I wouldn’t let him get a tattoo until he was of legal age. He had little skinny arms then so it wasn’t a very big tattoo.”
Andre Miller
Miller has a tattoo on his back, too obscured by his jersey to make out.
Greg Oden
Oden entered the league with a tribute to his deceased best friend over his heart, as described by a New York Times piece.
Gerald Wallace
I love Wallace’s tiger tattoo. It’s great that one of the most energetic and excitable players in the league has a super-calm, un-roaring, un-threatening tiger on his shoulder.
Players without tattoos:
Luke Babbitt
Earl Barron
Nicolas Batum
Rudy Fernandez
Armon Johnson
Patrick Mills
Brandon Roy
Elliot Williams
