Back in December, with the Kings in the midst of one of their better stretches of the season, Harrison Barnes made a pledge to inspire his teammates to get Sacramento’s record up to .500. They were three games away at 12-15, and Barnes decided not to shave until the team was back to even or until the season ended. Even during the hiatus, Barnes stayed faithful to his commitment.
Ultimately, Barnes had to wait until the season was over to finally cash in on his first shave in eight months, but with the help of Schick Hydro, that beard is finally gone.
As part of the rollout for Barnes’ new (or back to his old) look, he took time to speak with Sactown Royalty about his promise — and the end of the season.
Sactown Royalty: Was there ever a moment during the quarantine when you looked in the mirror and thought, maybe I should just stop this?
Harrison Barnes: Yeah, there was quite a few times my family was like, “the season might not come back, you might as well just shave,” and I was like: “Until I get a final word from the league that the season is canceled, you know, I have to stick with it.” From December until now, this has gone on a little bit longer than expected, but it’s finally nice to get to shave.
STR: How did you and your family contracting COVID-19 impact your ability to prepare and play in the NBA restart?
HB: There almost wasn’t a restart had they not gotten better, so I was thankful they were able to turn a corner. It was a scary time, my wife was really sick, but my mom was only down for a few days, so it was good that they were able to get better and then I was able to go down to Orlando with the team.
STR: Three of your teammates also tested positive. How did that affect the team as a whole and your ability to come together during that time in the bubble?
HB: It was difficult, just because I think everyone had wide-ranging symptoms with it, and having that time and that chemistry to be able to build, I think when you look at the teams that are playing really well down in Orlando, they had a great opportunity to gel and bond during that time. For us as a team, I think we weren't able necessarily to get that time early on before the games started to bond, we kind of had to do it once the games were already going.
STR: Was it too late at that point?
HB: You know you never want to make excuses because we were in the games. First game was right there, third game right there, so we had opportunities to win games, and we just came up short.
STR: Do you take any positives away from that experience in Orlando as a group?
HB: Yeah, you know I think it was a playoff-style atmosphere. For us to be in that situation, to be under those conditions where you have to execute, I think that’s something we can take forward into next year.
STR: Speaking of next year, is there anything you specifically want to work on this offseason?
HB: I think the biggest thing right now is enjoying this time to rest and let my body recover. It’s been a long year just in terms of busy last summer with the world cup coming into this season, COVID, bubble, so there’s just a lot to just unpack and just let get your body fully recovered before you start training again.
STR: Is there anything you want the team to add going into next season?
HB: I just think we need to spend time together this offseason working out together. I feel like there’s been so many times whether it’s been the season or whatever it may be where we’ve kind of been a little fragmented, just with injuries and things like that. So, you know hopefully we’ll just get time together where we can just be healthy, working out, developing that chemistry.
STR: Take me back to the beginning of the beard commitment. Why did you decide not to shave?
HB: We were in Indiana, and the barber was coming to the hotel, and guys were like you know you want a cut, and I just put a statement, I’m not getting it cut till we get to .500. At that time we were right there, I thought it was going to be a three or four game thing and it ended up being longer, but I just wanted guys to know the confidence that I had in our team and what I felt we were capable of doing. We showed moments of it in small spans, but consistently, that’s something that we have to work to improve on.
STR: Is this the first time you’ve made this type of your pledge to your teammates or had you done something like this when you were younger?
HB: Never. Never had done this before, I don’t want to say I’ll never do it again, but you know, I may add some stipulations next time I do it.
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