NBA Superstitions: Lucky Socks, Sleep in Uniforms, and PB&J Rituals

For Jason Terry, the turning point came in 1997. The night before the NCAA national championship game, Terry and his Arizona Wildcats prepared to face the University of Kentucky. Sharing a hotel room with teammate Mike Bibby, both struggled to sleep ahead of the biggest game of their young careers.

“Mike Bibby and I were anxious for the game,” Terry said. “So, we both put our full uniforms on – socks, everything. And we slept in them. The next day, we ended up winning the national championship. After that, I was like, ‘OK, I think I’m superstitious and I need to keep this thing going.'”

Few players offer clearer insight into basketball superstitions than Terry. He has won championships at every level: an NCAA title with Arizona and an NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks in 2011. Throughout his career, he embraced numerous quirks both on and off the court.

In college, he began wearing long, high socks with “CATS” written down each leg. In the NBA, he continued making fashion statements, donning a headband every game to honor his mentor, Slick Watts. Most notably, every night before an NBA game, Terry wore the shorts of the opposing team to sleep.

“For instance,” Terry said, “if we’re playing the Miami Heat, I’d wear the Heat shorts the night before each game.”

But how did he obtain those shorts? He went directly to the source.

“I would hustle equipment managers and see if they had an extra pair,” said Terry, the NBA Sixth Man of the Year in 2009. “I think the most famous shorts I was able to get was a pair of Utah Jazz shorts that belonged to John Stockton.”

And how did he know they belonged to the NBA’s all-time leader in steals and assists?

“Number one: they were short,” Terry said. “Number two: they had his No 12 on the inside tag.”

Eldridge Recasner, another former NBA guard, played eight seasons for multiple teams, including starting stints with the Houston Rockets and Atlanta Hawks in the mid-1990s. He emphasized the importance of sleep and a consistent routine before games.

“My main thing was that I had to take a nap on gameday and do my same pregame warmup routine,” Recasner said. “The nap was mandatory. And the ball-handling and shooting drills I did had to be the same routine all the time.”

But beyond drills, Recasner said he remembered his father, Eldridge Sr., before each contest.

“My dad was in the Army,” said Recasner, now a college basketball broadcaster in the Pacific Northwest. “He passed away when I was 18. So, I always looked at the flag during games. I counted off five stars to the right, five stars down, five stars to the left and five stars back up to the starting star and salute my dad. I still do it today as an announcer.”

Tim Hardaway, who faced Recasner during the 1990s, had his own rituals. At home, Hardaway said he drove the same route to every game without deviation. On the road, the five-time All-Star said, “I ate the same thing every day – caesar salad with baked chicken and vegetables.”

Superstitions have shaped NBA history. Ray Allen shaved his head at the exact same time each game day. Michael Jordan wore his University of North Carolina shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform throughout his career. Rajon Rondo showered five times on game days. LeBron James clipped his nails during contests, and his pre-game chalk toss became iconic.

Some superstitions go even further.

“Kevin Garnett had to eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich before every game,” Terry said. “And it had to be on a certain type of bread. And he watched Family Guy while he ate those sandwiches. His other superstition was that he always had to be the last guy on the team plane if we were traveling. Every time.”

In 2010, as the Mavericks began their championship season, Terry was inspired at a team function with a tattoo artist. He decided to show his devotion by getting a tattoo of the Larry O’Brien Trophy on his right biceps.

“Once we won, it basically said I proved it,” Terry said of the tattoo.

But trying to repeat the winning routine failed.

“Superstitions don’t always work out,” he said. “I tried it again. Once I signed with the Celtics as a free agent [in 2012], I went and got the Celtics logo tattooed on my other biceps with the Larry O’Brien Trophy. But we lost in the first round. I only played one year with the Celtics, so I don’t think I’ll do the tattoo superstition any more. It has to work multiple times to be a true superstition.”

Only once in his 23-year career was Terry unable to practice one of his many superstitions. It happened in college, the season after his Arizona team won the title.

“There was only one time when I wasn’t able to do my superstition,” said Terry. “That was the equipment manager in 1998. In the first round of the NCAA Tournament, he forgot my signature CATS socks. We tried – we got regular white socks. My roommate put a sharpie pen to them and wrote ‘CATS’ down each side. But it didn’t work.”

Terry went 0-9 in that game against Nicholls State.

“I didn’t score one bucket,” he said. “But the next day, they Fed-Ex’d my socks for the second round and I had double-digits. We won the game by 33.”