Joel Embiid’s mask is the first of its kind

Philly fans were anxious. After enduring five years of The Process, the 76ers long-awaited return to the NBA postseason was in jeopardy of being short-lived. Their first-round series was tied at one game apiece and headed to Miami. The team’s dynamic centerpiece, Joel Embiid, had missed both of the first two playoff games — forced out of action with a broken orbital bone.

And then, suddenly, things got a little better. Coach Brett Brown announced that Embiid’s playing status for Game 3 was being upgraded from Questionable to Probable. And then, even more suddenly, things got a LOT better. Brown let slip that Embiid would be making his return in a MASK. A mask that had required special approval by the league after a byzantine review process. A mask with a top-secret design that promised to be a big “surprise.”

Philadelphia was hyped. I was hyped.

And the mask did NOT disappoint. It was unique and futuristic. Awesome and weird. The man behind the mask wasn’t bad, either — Embiid had 23 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, and 3 blocks in his postseason debut.

Read More: Are these 76ers the reincarnated Durant-Harden-Westbrook Thunder?

That’s cool — but I’m really just here to talk about the mask. At first glance, I was pretty sure I’d never seen anything like it before. Some Google-image searching confirmed my suspicions — this thing was a whole different animal.

The NBA has seen more masks than Comic-Con and at least as many goggles, but this is the first mask-and-goggle combo in the history of basketball. Don’t believe me? Strap on your favorite pair of rec specs and follow me down this rabbit hole.

The Masks

NBA-mask history began in a dark place. The early prototypes looked like torture devices — with superstars Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson in danger of suffocating inside leather-heavy contraptions straight out of the “Saw” series. The haphazard face bandages of Dolph Schayes and Al McGuire had them looking like casualties of a B-movie monster attack, too. Meanwhile, Lloyd Neal looked more like the B-movie villain — breathing ominously behind his Jason Vorhees-style hockey mask. Even more terrifying was the reanimated corpse of Rudy Tomjanovich shuffling, masked and undead, up and down the court in pursuit of bloody revenge.

The 1980s saw a bit of mask-making modernization — Earl Cureton, Harold Pressley, and John Starks all sported the more airy “sideways H” look made of white plastic with white straps during that decade. But, the landscape of basketball’s face fashion experienced its first truly tectonic shift in 1990.

That October, Detroit Bad Boy Bill Laimbeer broke his nose on Olden Polynice’s shoulder during a preseason game. After a quick surgery, Laimbeer returned for the 1990-91 season opener wearing the NBA’s first clear plastic mask (with two black straps). A version of this form-fitting design has become the modern standard. Sometimes it has a single black strap. Sometimes five. Sometimes the straps are white. Sometimes they add padding to make the player look silly. Sometimes the mask is held in place with a sweatband — that’s fun, too. Here’s a look at all the different permutations that have been employed by NBA players.

A trio of the game’s biggest stars ushered in the next era of NBA masks starting in 2012. Kobe Bryant had his nose broken in the All-Star Game that year and the Black Mamba returned to the court with a black mask (a black, black-mamba mask). It was something different — a bit reminiscent of Zorro, but with oversized eyeholes. Kyrie Irving had his own heroic black-mask moment later that year, dropping 41 points in Madison Square Garden after breaking a bone in his jaw. And then, two years later, LeBron James elevated the superhero black mask to a whole new level.

Typically, a mask is a hindrance to its owner. It’s a mark of frailty and vulnerability. Not so for James that night in 2014. LeBron actually looked cooler than usual while wearing his mask.  The black-carbon material gave the mask a shiny, striped aspect that really worked for him. It was intimidating. LeBron’s new appearance was an immediate smash, but the league quickly rained on his mask parade — asking that he switch back to the conventional clear mask for the next game.

From that point on, black masks would be banned from the NBA — or, at least, so we thought.

The Goggles

There’s a parallel history of NBA goggles that has run alongside the history of NBA masks. The NBA’s very first superstar, George Mikan, was a bespectacled behemoth. Mikan led the Lakers (of Minnesota) to five of the league’s first seven championships — all while wearing coke-bottle glasses. Kurt Rambis revived the “just come to work wearing your regular glasses” style in the 80s. And — one could argue — Otto Porter is continuing that tradition in his own modern aesthetic.

Following in Mikan’s footsteps, another Hall-of-Fame Laker center donned NBA eyewear. Well, actually, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was still playing for Milwaukee in 1970 when he first started wearing goggles. And it was a ski mask, really. A freaking ski mask. The league MVP was wearing a ski mask.

By the time Kareem reached L.A. he had adopted the double-bubble goggles. It was a bold look. One that inspired copycat teammates and rivals, alike.

Whereas Kareem’s hard plastic goggles stood out in front of his face, Horace Grant’s square frames were flexible and pulled taught directly across his eyes. Those square goggles became a family tradition with Horace’s brother, Harvey, rocking a similar set of protective eyewear. Ben Wallace paid homage to the Grant brothers by wearing a red-framed version of the signature glasses. And Joakim Noah made his own tribute in 2014.

Around the same time that the Grants were revolutionizing rec specs, Reggie Miller was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with Dream Team II – sporting the oh-so 90s tinted Oakley sunglasses. Antoine Carr was very down with that look, as well. More recently, LeBron James and his former teammate Dwyane Wade have also tried out the firing range safety glasses. Active players still occasionally wear the transparent version of those Oakleys, too, including Dario Saric.

The other school of modern goggles — those with the big thick black frames — was popularized by Amar’e Stoudemire. Tony Parker and Larry Sanders took inspiration and had their own versions. Jaylen Brown is continuing the lineage.

Here’s a timeline of some of the most famous four-eyes in NBA history.

The First-ever Goggled Mask

That’s it, then. The complete history. You’ve heard about a lot of masks and a lot of goggles, but not too many mask-goggles. None actually. And no goggle-masks, either.

The eye cover on Embiid’s mask was designed to protect his orbital bone as it heals. It’s made of some indestructible proprietary material — the brainchild of John Horne, a designer of prosthetic and orthotic devices, who made the device for the Sixers. The black part of the mask is a “procomp” mold that combines polypropylene and embedded carbon fiber filaments. It’s stronger than the conventional clear plastic mask, which has already proved useful.

Turner Sports’ Rebecca Haarlow reported that the Sixers tried 20 different versions of the mask before the NBA approved the final iteration. Horne’s black design was deemed acceptable by the league, presumably because of its added strength. The dark color apparently helped Embiid focus, too.

“With a clear mask, it kind of feels like there’s so much reflection, and I can’t really see,” Embiid explained. “With the black mask, it kind of gives you a clear vision.”

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Aside from all the practical and therapeutic benefits the mask provides – it just looks real spooky. And Embiid knows it. Reflecting on Justise Winslow’s attempt to break his face gear, Embiid said, “It’s going to take much more than that to get me out of this series. I’m going to be a nightmare for them, too.”

The nightmare is over for Winslow and the Heat, but it may just be getting started for the rest of the NBA, starting with Embiid’s next opponent, the Boston Celtics.