It’s well known that athletes tend to have some rather odd superstitions, but if believing that eating fried chicken before every game is the secret to your success, then more power to you.  After all, your fried chicken diet has been enough to get you to the highest level of your profession while my more balanced diet only has me writing about it.

Still, some superstitions are a little less harmful than others.  I mean, if you’re wearing the same underwear for three weeks during a winning streak, you’re not really hurting anybody but yourself.  Sure, a couple of your teammates may catch a whiff or two while in the locker room, but it’s not going to kill them.   Of course, if you play for the Los Angeles Clippers and you vow not to talk to your girlfriend until you win a game, you might as well take a vow of celibacy and join a group of Tibetan monks.

From the LOS ANGELES TIMES:

A few hours after the Clippers defeated the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday for their first win, Al Thornton talked to his girlfriend for the first time since the season started.

Thornton said he didn’t want to talk to her until the Clippers ended their losing streak, partly out of superstition and not wanting to talk when he’s in a bad mood.

“It wasn’t anything personal,” Thornton said. “She knows how I am about basketball.”

The Clippers had lost their first six games before beating the Mavericks on Sunday, and Thornton had to be wondering if he’d ever talk to his woman again.  Though his relationship wasn’t the only thing on the line in the losing streak.

During the team’s six-game losing streak, Thornton refused to get a haircut. He sat in a chair at a barbershop Monday ready for a haircut, before suddenly changing his mind and deciding to let the hair grow after the Clippers’ win.

“I might have a huge Afro,” Thornton said.

So the losing streak wasn’t all that bad as Al discovered something new about himself.  He looks good with an afro.  Of course he’s still lucky that the Clippers got their first win because had they waited any longer Al’s girlfriend may have discovered that she liked not talking to him.