Mickael Gelabale was in the NBA a while ago, didn’t do much, then headed overseas to hoop following a stint in the D-League in 2009. If you know Mickael Gelabale at gela-all, it’s because of his glorious, glorious dreadlocks. Other than that, not a terribly notable player.
Which is why it’s notable that Gelabale returned this season, both to the Olympics and more recently to the Timberwolves, sans dreadlocks. When a guy you only know for his hair doesn’t have his hair, it’s strange. As it turns out, there’s a reason for that — the dreads weighed so much they were messing with his body. From a Google translation of Spanish newspaper Marca:
In the last two seasons, had suffered constant injuries Gelabale muscle took origin in his famous look. The dreadlocks, the weight in the head that carries carry such volume hair, bad posture cause generating fibrillar articular pathologies and injuries. They can even alter the way of running. Experts believe that it is harmful to the athletes wear their hair like that. Not start, but in the long run, hurt the player dreads.
The explanation is simple. Glowing hair like Gelabale prompting for years and many changes the center of gravity of the body. The hair pulled back from her head, the player must correct this displacement with the muscles of the neck, with the passage of time this unnatural gesture takes work and a mismatch in the neck and eventually degenerates into continuous ailments.
It is not the first at something happens. A teammate Joakim Noah, who also played the game with France yesterday, the Bulls doctors advised him to cut his hair. The pivot, more rebellious refused and had less hair and has helped Gelabale a ponytail, almost a bow, one of its hallmarks. In Chicago they have made shirts with him.
Just to make this sound like human English — Mickael Gelabale cut off his signature dreadlocks because they weighed so much that they’d pull down his head, which caused him to readjust how he held his head, which in turn resulted in more injuries to his head and neck. (Also, French doctors asked Joakim Noah to cut his ponytail and he was like, “NOPE.” Haha, of course.) There are more articles that back it up, so it must be true — Mickael Gelabale’s signature dreadlocks were a health-related casualty. Tragic.
But you have to wonder if guys like Kenneth Faried and Jae Crowder know about the risks of having heavy hair. Chris Bosh certainly did, but he’s usually ahead of the curve. Just don’t tell Andrew Bynum. We need to see how this thing plays out.
(thanks to Nick Flynt, Aymeric)
