Whoa Nellie!

And just when football fans in the Bay Area are rethinking if jigsaw puzzles would be a better hobby than watching sports, the pro basketball team is turning heads.

The Golden State Warriors, an NBA team (if you only follow the NBA during the playoffs, you may not know that), are starting to put the ball in the basket more frequently than their opponent.

After a big win Monday, beating the San Antonio Spurs (you know of them, playoff watchers) 111-102, the Warriors are 9-6 and have won two consecutive games at the hands of two pretty good teams, Utah and the aforementioned Spurs.

There is lots of praise to go around. Monta Ellis (look him up) is playing well, Jason Richardson is always a spark, but we'll discuss former lottery pick Mike Dunleavy.

The stats don't really tell the story, but while his playing time is down a bit, his steals and field goal percentage are up. He's not scoring 25 points per game, but he's doing the little things and has the timing that is helping the Warriors beat good teams.

But when Dunleavy was in college, he was a clean-cut white boy who'd had every advantage in the world. Well, he still has every advantage a kid can ask for. But have you seen him lately? The guy got mugged by the ugly stick. Hey, they say Oakland can be a rough area.

As you can see from the above photo, Dunleavy has grown his hair out a bit. He likes wine too, it seems. He also looks a bit satanic and, so it goes, isn't very friendly to reporters. He looks mean, he looks ugly, he looks beaten. But with his increased ugliness, he also has had an increase in skill.

Let the graph explain.



Perhaps there's a general correlation in basketball as a whole. Just look what Adam Morrison did at Gonzaga last year, when he grew his hair out and looked like a cross between a Beatle and a Spanish pornstar.

Dunleavy, who was quite sheek in college, has had a turn for the worse in his physical appearance. But his skill has improved. And the Golden State Warriors are winning basketball games.