You know that horrible phrase "new year, new me" that people love to throw around when they pretend their New Year resolutions will be kept up? Maybe sometimes that permeates to the NBA floor. Or maybe sometimes just to please your kids you have to find a new you. That's what Indiana Pacers' point guard George Hill went through recently with his infamous blond hair.
Prior to Saturday's game against the Denver Nuggets, Hill showed up to the arena without his blond hair. A look he had cultivated all season long in a way to either pay tribute to Dru Hill's Sisqo or Simon Phoenix from the 1990's mega-hit Demolition Man, Hill had dyed blond hair that made some people fall in love with the look all over again. Apparently, that love ran out between Hill's hair and his son. He cut off the blond hair this weekend when his son told him it was time. Some of his teammates didn't recognize him and thought the Pacers had a new guy on the roster. From Nate Taylor of IndyStar.com:
Before Saturday’s game, Hill said the main reason he cut his hair and removed the blond color was because the upkeep became too much to maintain and too much of a chore for him. An eventful few weeks for Hill, who became a father to his son, Zayden, almost two weeks ago, was another reason to get a haircut.
“My son told me this morning,” Hill joked after the Pacers’ 109-105 overtime victory.“He said, ‘Daddy cut it,’ so I cut it. His mom got strong genes and she very, very strong. I’m strong, so he’s already walking and talking.”
Hill did not announce his new hairstyle on social media, as he did last summer to the surprise of fans. Instead, he arrived at Bankers Life Fieldhouse for the Pacers’ shootaround and stunned his teammates.
“Everyone was like “Whoa, a new player!” said Chase Budinger, a natural blond. “I liked it. It looked good on him. We had a running joke that we were twins. We would always call each other twins. ‘Hey, Twin!’ Can’t do that no more.”
Before Saturday, rookie Myles Turner had never seen Hill in person without blond hair.
“I came in and thought we had a new player,” Turner said. “I didn’t know who that was.”
Paul George even joked that it took him about 30 minutes to notice Hill had a new hair color, which is the same as his old hair color. He even made a crack about Hill not wanting to scare his son. For Hill, he also joked that the new hair means he has to adjust his jump shot because it's a new weight he's playing with and he has to get used to what he's working with now.
“I knew something was different when I first saw him,” George said. “It didn’t hit me that his hair was changed. It took me like 30 minutes in to notice like, ‘Oh, you got a new cut.’ George is someone that loves to have fun. Maybe he did it because he didn’t want to scare his son. It’s good to have the old George back.”
“I got to adjust my shot to it,” Hill said in a dry, sarcastic tone about playing with less hair. “I think with the hair, I found out how to shoot with that and cutting it off I lost a lot of weight from all the hair.”
We can all fondly remember George Hill's blond hair without ever mentioning that look again. There's a reason the 90's aren't happening anymore.
