After all, hair has become as much of a player's signature as his sneaker contract or finishing move. As the line between competition and entertainment becomes increasingly blurred, more NBA players than ever are treating games the same way movie stars approach the upcoming Academy Awards -- by making a style statement so bold the adoring public won't even remember whether you won or lost.

To paraphrase Fernando Lamas, it is better to look good than to play good.

From Dennis Rodman's ever-changing colors to Allen Iverson's crooked cornrows to Brian Grant's overflowing dreadlocks, hair is replacing tattoos and baggy shorts as the quickest way to say, "Don't I look fabulous?"

"It's unique," said Portland Trail Blazers announcer Steve Jones, who played in the ABA in the 1970s. "Hair is one of the ways that people can express themselves and it's unique in what they've tried to do in expressing themselves."

The growing number of offbeat hairdos only is rivaled by the difference of opinions as to who are the pioneers of the industry. Is it Vidal Sassoon, or Jason Sasser?

Right now, Grant is the NBA's Jennifer Aniston. The Portland power forward's long locks are the hot look everyone wants, although he quickly admits he is no trend-setter. In fact, Pervis Ellison sported dreadlocks in the little court time he saw last season and Charles Oakley began growing them during the lockout.

"Last year I tried to braid my hair a little bit but it just really wasn't me, so I just kept growing it and growing it," Grant said. "I'm a Bob Marley fan and I was going to try to make my hair lock up."

Grant unsuccessfully tried dreadlocks a couple of years ago, when he was with the Sacramento Kings. He didn't like the way it looked when it first started growing and he shaved his hair short. This time, he went all the way -- with a little help.

"My wife will wash it really good," he explained. "Then she'll just take each individual one and twist it all the way down to the root, to the scalp. Do each individual one like that every two weeks, and eventually it will all lock up."

Grant occasionally wears a headband to keep his hair out of his eyes, much the way Atlanta Hawks forward Christian Laettner did with his hair when he was the Minnesota Timberwolves a couple of years ago.

Grant's look has caught on with other players who appear to be growing their own locks, most notably LaPhonso Ellis and Nick Anderson. At home, Grant has gotten mixed reviews. Naturally, his wife loves it and his mother hates it. But he is quick to point out that his new look not only is stylish, but practical.

"I like it. I can get up, come to practice and half of it just drops to the other side," Grant said.

"Everybody has their own individual reason for doing it," he added. "Certain people set the trends. Nobody ever really braided their hair until Allen Iverson did at the Rookie Game. Then a lot of guys started braiding it."

Iverson first sported braids, or cornrows, during the week leading up to All-Star Weekend in 1997. Initially, he also wore a wide black headband and drew criticism for advancing an already brash image. Like Grant, Iverson had a practical reason for braiding his hair.

"I was tired of trying to get my hair cut on the road," said Iverson. "I was tired of guys messing up my hair or using dirty clippers. It made it a lot easier."

While conformists shuddered, Iverson's look became more and more popular. Last season, Latrell Sprewell and Rasheed Wallace followed the trend. This year, Sam Perkins and Mark Bryant are among those who joined the braid bandwagon.

Obviously, the scoring column is not the only place where Iverson is setting the standard. The electric Philadelphia 76ers guard has experimented with zigzag cornrows and on opening night this year debuted a look that appeared to be a complex maze for laboratory rats, with endless entranceways and exits.

"What these players are looking for is something that's distinctive and unique to them that is going to set them apart and maybe start a trend and they can say, `I started that,'" Jones said.

Perhaps no one was more disappointed than Iverson that the lockout canceled the All-Star Game in Philadelphia. He had every intention of making the team -- and a tribute of tresses to Julius Erving, one of his favorite players who popularized the afro before Iverson was born.

"I just love Dr. J," he said. "I was thinking about him a lot. I was just going to take the rows out and wear No. 6 in a tribute to him."

Iverson did remove the rows for the cover of "Slam" magazine, wearing an old Sixers jersey for the photo shoot. An enlarged poster-size version hangs on the office wall of his agent, David Falk.

Jones believes all of the latest looks aren't trends at all. According to him, cornrows and afros simply are a retro movement back to the true trend-setters of the free-spirited 1960s, the same way bell bottoms and platform shoes have come back into style.

"There were a lot of players in the ABA that had cornrows but they were cornrowing their hair to get afros," Jones said. "This was to lead to a bigger cloud of hair rather than just the statement of `This is the style I prefer.' If you saw a player in cornrows, then it was really to affect the afro."

Although Jones recalled former ABA players such as Erving and Darnell Hillman who let their afros to grow to Angela Davis proportions, he believes one of the biggest hair statements was made by someone who doesn't have any hair at all.

"The guy that was the precursor and the inventor of the nuclear look was Michael Jordan," he said. "When Jordan made it famous, a lot of people felt comfortable -- and I don't mean just on the basketball court but in society in general -- with, `If it's short and it's not going to grow, get rid of it.'

"We've gone through a cycle of that. Now you've got a new group of people saying, `Anybody can be bald.' There's nothing unique about it anymore."

Not every trend has caught on. Last season, Keith Closs and Gary Trent both tried a variation on cornrows, binding their hair in little balls that made them look like the world's tallest Chia pets. Andrew DeClercq appears to be starting a Beatles reunion with his overgrown soup-bowl coif. And no one has been bold enough to tie their braids together to form the faux tiara sported by rap star Coolio.

Of course, if you want unique, look no further than Rodman, who changes his hair color more often than some people change their underwear. He has sported everything from platinum blond to a Chicago Bulls logo to the AIDS symbol to a mix of greens that accentuated his wrestling role as "Rodzilla."

"If there's anybody who's influenced hair more than anybody else in what you can and cannot do with it, it's Dennis Rodman," Jones said. "The press made so much of the different colors, the different designs. All of a sudden, people said, `I'm not going to do the colors, I'm not going to the designs, but I'm gonna do this.'"

"Rodman does what he does. He just does it," Grant said. "Someone else wants to do what they want to do, I don't knock anybody and I hope nobody knocks me."

The retirement of Jordan and his bald pate calls attention to somewhat of a separation between old school and new school. There are exceptions, but veteran players such as Patrick Ewing and Charles Barkley keep their heads close-cropped or bald. Younger players such as Kobe Bryant seem to prefer the nappy look, which raises an interesting question: How long is too long?

The NBA's fashion police have come out in force in the past, fining players for baggy shorts and blue language. At least one player believes it won't be long before the league comes calling with a giant pair of scissors.

"In the future, they're probably going to make some alterations to fining people," Milwaukee forward Chris Gatling said. "With that whole ordeal about the drug thing, people were not taking care of their business, not being such a role model. They're doing other things and getting away from that. I don't think that you really want to have your hair like that."

A seven-year veteran, Gatling keeps his head bald because he believes it looks more acceptable. He has extreme distaste for Grant's dreadlocks and Iverson's cornrows.

"I'm sure if they weren't in the professional world they would have to come back to reality if they want to get a job, because they're not going to be accepted in the corporate world," he said. "I mean, having hair all wild, it looks dirty. It looks unsanitary. You look unhealthy."

"If I had a family to support, with kids, and somebody told me they weren't going to hire me unless I cut my hair, then I'd probably cut it for my family," Grant admitted. "I think most people who know me know what I do as far as community work and know my character. If you've ever met me, at first glance you can look at me and think whatever. But you look at who I am and what I'm about and what's within, my hair shouldn't matter."

For now, the NBA has no plans to turn its league into basic training, with everyone sporting a crewcut. Commissioner David Stern has frowned upon some players' style statements in the past, but even he got a little wild during the lockout, growing a full-faced beard.

Wild met mild last month when Grant was guarded by Gatling for stretches of a game. Perhaps drawing some Samsonesque strength from his dreadlocks, Grant outplayed Gatling. Which just goes to show that even a bald guy can have a bad hair day.