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Nov 08, 2023

Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray And Her Goggles

August 19, 2023 A Look Behind The Lenses By: Jameelah Johnson If Allisha Gray is in the game, she’s rocking her goggles. When her feet hit the court, she’s rocking her goggles. If she’s on the

August 19, 2023

A Look Behind The Lenses

By: Jameelah Johnson

If Allisha Gray is in the game, she’s rocking her goggles. When her feet hit the court, she’s rocking her goggles. If she’s on the sidelines or done playing? The goggles are also done, away from her face or on top of her head. The now signature look for the 28-year-old Atlanta Dream guard is so recognizable, there’s even a strong social media presence for the goggles…and also a Twitter page dedicated to the iconic lenses (shoutout @AGV15ion).

“I remember playing, I went up for a rebound and as I was going up, one of the practice guys just poked me in my eye,” Gray recalled why she started rocking the goggles back during the tryouts for the qualifying Olympics 3×3 tournament. “It was a little temporary blindness for a little minute so from then on, I was like ‘Oh, let me try the goggles’ and from there on I just liked the way they fit and protected my eyes.”

Although some players have reported how playing with goggles can feel weird and can impede their peripheral vision (or at least makes it more difficult to see that way), Gray quickly adjusted to having them affixed to her face. “As long as I keep them clean…It’s not hard at all, it’s like seeing out of a pair of glasses.”

With Gray wearing goggles every time she plays, she’s bound to have quite a few pairs. Just how many? Even she doesn’t know, “I own a lot of goggles, lots of lenses. I can’t count how many but I own a lot.”

“Rhyne (Howard), Naz (Hillmon), I mean they just wear the goggles. They’re just very supportive. But we all just like to have fun, we all do it for fun,” Gray chuckled as she relayed why her teammates will don a pair of goggles every now and then. We’ve seen Howard rock them, during the 2023 WNBA All-Star game, on the bench during some of the Dream games.

When Atlanta played Phoenix on July 25 and Gray and Howard checked out of the game, Howard was spotted with the goggles on her face while standing next to a goggle-less Gray. In fact, Howard posted a photo in May where she said she had a pair of Gray’s goggles and then proceeded to ask her Twitter followers if they wanted them.

https://x.com/howard_rhyne/status/1661441568207785984?s=51&t=TwmMyrqoEEnxV1RjxaPKFA

“They’ve made it very easy for me to adjust. I know sometimes I may get frustrated or something or don’t understand something,” Gray’s relationship with Howard and Hillmon, has grown so much since Gray’s arrival, they’re a pillar part of how she’s adapted to the team. “I can always go to Naz and Rhyne, they be able to help me calm down, help me understand what’s going on. They’re very important to my success here ‘cause, without them, I don’t know what I would do.”

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