What some guys won’t do to win a few basketball games.
In the winter of 1990, the Philadelphia 76ers hoping to turn their pedestrian 18-16 record into a significant winning streak, the whole team made a pact that if they could win 10 in a row, they’d all get their ears pierced. Sure enough, after that streak lasted a full dozen games, they did just that, diamond studs all around.
So everyone from Charles Barkley to Rick Mahorn to Johnny Dawkins to Hershey Hawkins to Mike Gminski – who’s the guest speaker at this year’s McCallie-Dr Pepper Classic basketball luncheon on Friday, Feb. 18 – got at least one of their ears drilled to make way for a glistening gemstone.
And how long did Gem-inski’s left ear remain that way?
“It’s still pierced,” the former Duke great said this past week. “I went through too much pain to get it to ever let that hole close up.”