It’s Halloween, the creepy holiday that now brings us one of the NBA’s best matchups of the year: LeBron James vs. Stephen Curry in the battle of “whose costume is better?”
Dwyane Wade and his wife, Gabrielle Union, chose something far friendlier, going with a Milli Vanilli look.
YOOOOOO @TheRealJRSmith and @kevinlove are killing it!!!! pic.twitter.com/D9mfIdqdtu
— DJ Steph Floss (@djstephfloss) October 31, 2017
. @KyleKorver AMAZING!!!! pic.twitter.com/vLpwR6L8CX
— DJ Steph Floss (@djstephfloss) October 31, 2017
At least this year, the Cavs and James couldn’t jab at the Golden State Warriors for gagging a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
With his habit of sinking shots from the arena tunnel during warm-ups, Curry is no stranger to providing dramatic moments before Warriors games. But Curry went far beyond that, jumping the gun on Halloween by paying homage to the “Saw” horror movies when he arrived Sunday at Oracle Arena.
Not only did Curry wear the creepy visage and outfit of Billy the Puppet, a mechanical ventriloquist’s puppet that recurs in the films, he rode in on the character’s red tricycle. Somehow, he was able to ride straight through a metal detector at an arena entrance before being politely ushered through a door by a laughing Draymond Green.
😂 @StephenCurry30 wants to play a little game... 🎃👻🚲 pic.twitter.com/2sXhB6yzFF
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) October 29, 2017
Green, one of the NBA’s foremost tough guys, was not terrified, but it was a very solid Halloween prank by Curry. Nevertheless, the two-time MVP had nothing on this NBA fan’s costume:
That’s Charlotte resident Justin Caskey reenacting the gruesome injury suffered by the Celtics’ Gordon Hayward earlier this month in the NBA’s first game of the regular season. That was also the first game of Hayward’s Boston career after he came over from the Jazz in free agency, but his season quickly ended with a fractured left ankle.
Caskey’s own left leg was lost to cancer in 2008. After seeing what happened to Hayward, painful as that moment was, the Hornets fan got an idea.
“I was watching the game when Hayward got injured, and after the initial shock, I thought it wouldn’t be difficult to adjust my prosthetic to look like the injury,” Caskey told ABC11, emphasizing that he has no ill will toward the veteran small forward.
“If I wasn’t so sure that Hayward would rehab back and be as good, if not better, I wouldn’t have done the costume. I mean, when you realize what it takes physically and mentally to make it that far in a sport, you have to realize that this injury won’t keep that guy down.”
Caskey said that, since losing his leg, he’s “usually tried to incorporate being an amputee into my Halloween costume.” He added, “I try to find comedy in most things. I don’t think it really helps to dwell on a situation negatively.”
Curry and James aren’t the only NBA stars who have gotten into the spirit of the season. Earlier this month, Thunder guard Russell Westbrook and teammate Nick Collison dressed as the main characters played by Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in the 1992 basketball movie, “White Men Can’t Jump.”
Even the wives of Westbrook and Collison got into costume, as the characters played in the movie by Tyra Ferrell and Rosie Perez. But the Westbrooks were still not done, as his wife, Nina Earl, shared a photo recently of herself and their young child as bees with the reigning NBA MVP dressed as a beekeeper.
The Cavaliers’ Isaiah Thomas also got in on the festivities, posting a photo of himself dressed as rapper Easy-E side-by-side with a real photo of the former N.W.A. star.
Over in the land of hockey, Nashville’s P.K. Subban put a lot of thought, energy and swiveling into his costume.
Happy Halloween Y'all 🎃😂 pic.twitter.com/PNGoFLO26w
— P.K. Subban (@PKSubban1) October 31, 2017
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