ORLANDO -- If the state of Texas is planning on any commercials during NBA games over the next week, officials might want to hold off. Cleveland's Daniel Gibson will be a walking advertisement.Just in time for Wednesday's big nationally televised game at Orlando, the guard has shaved onto the left side of his head a big map of Texas with a star on it. While it is the Lone Star State, Gibson, who is from Houston and a big baseball fan, calls it an "Astros star.''
"I'm the first one,'' Gibson claimed about being the initial NBA player with a state shaved onto his head for a game.
Gibson says he likes to have designs on his head, but that this is his "best one.'' Previous ones have included his uniform No. 1, a Batman emblem and a Superman logo in honor of recent acquisition Shaquille O'Neal.
"I always do different designs,'' said Gibson, who got the Texas outline shaved onto his head Tuesday in Cleveland shortly before the team flew to Orlando. "It's just something I like doing... I always try to do something different to bring some fun and excitement to the game. Everybody loves it. They say it's the best one.
"Everybody loves Texas.''
Gibson said the design will be visible for around a week. He said his hair will grow back long enough in two or three weeks for him to have enough for another creation.
"My barber who did it just goes by Milano,'' Gibson said of his Cleveland artist. "He calls himself the barber to the stars.''
With all due respect to Milano, though, he might want to improve his Cavaliers client list a tad before giving himself that title. Gibson says other Cleveland players who go there are Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker. But none of the four players who have played in an All-Star Game -- O'Neal, LeBron James, Mo Williams and Zydrunas Ilgauskas -- were named as Milano clients, although the billiard-ball heads of O'Neal and Ilgauskas wouldn't provide much of a canvas.
For now, though, Milano is getting rave reviews for his latest design.
"It's nice. I like it,'' said Cleveland forward J.J. Hickson, who nevertheless indicated no immediate desire to have his native Georgia displayed on his head. "It represents himself. I've never seen anything like that.''
Gibson, though, might not have cooperated as well as he could have for Texas' tourism bureau. The Cavaliers don't play a Texas team until a Nov. 28 meeting with Dallas, and the design figures to be long gone by then.
Chris Tomasson can be reached at tomasson@fanhouse.com and on Twitter @christomasson.
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