NEW YORK — Anthony Davis says he’s never considered shaving his ubiquitous unibrow.
He never even thought it was a noteworthy feature until he got to college last season.
“No, I didn’t even think about that going to Kentucky,” the 6-foot-10 Davis told reporters Wednesday, a little more than 24 hours before he’s expected to be taken as the No. 1 overall pick of the New Orleans Hornets in Thursday’s NBA Draft.
Once he got to campus and eventually helped Kentucky win the national championship, the unibrow took on its own identity.
Fans held up signs that read, “Brow Down” and “Bow to the Brow.”
“I heard it all,” Davis said.
Now, in a prudent move, Davis has trademarked the catchphrases “Fear the Brow” and “Raise the Brow.”
“I had nothing to do with it,” Davis said. “My parents and my agent [Arn Tellem] did it and they just told me later. It’s trademarked …They told me, that was it.”
Davis isn’t the first basketball personality to trademark a phrase.
Knicks point guard Jeremy Lin became the only applicant remaining for the “Linsanity” trademark last month.
And Pat Riley trademarked the phrase “Three-Peat” in 1989 after leading the Lakers to a second straight NBA title, according to the New York Times. The Lakers did not win a third that year.
Asked what “Fear the Brow” means to him, Davis hesitated and said, “‘Fear the Brow,’ self-explanatory I guess. I didn’t make it. It’s not what it means to me but what I think it means to other guys, like [James Harden’s] ‘Fear the Beard.’ He’s a tough player.”
According to reports, Kentucky initiated the intellectual property exercise of trademarking the phrases for Davis because amateurs are not allowed to profit while at school.
Asked if he was looking forward to making money off the trademarks, Davis cracked, “Yeah, unless somebody else grow one then put theirs on it, but most definitely.”
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Davis was also asked if he was ready to handle New Orleans fans and he said no NBA fanbase could compare to Kentucky’s.
“There’s no fans…like Kentucky fans,” he said. “So when y’all talk about fans, the fans crazy. Y’all haven’t seen Kentucky fans. Y’all know what crazy fans are. So I think Kentucky really got me prepared for it.”
He said the Kentucky fans would wait for the players when they exited their housing at The Lodge.
“We’ll walk out [of the house] and then walk right back in, just wait,” he said. “And they’ll wait, too. For like eight hours.”
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While Davis is a certainty to go No. 1 overall, he said he would have trouble making picks after him.
“I’m not sure,” he said. “I’m not a GM or an owner so I don’t know what’s going through their heads. I don’t even know how they even select people, but it’s a great draft. There’s a lot of great talent in this draft. Just have to wait [until] Thursday night.”
