Head Cases

Chest thumping is pass�. Raising the roof is so five minutes ago. The on-court preening gesture du jour in the NBA is the "antennas up" salute. Introduced by the Clippers' Darius Miles and Quentin Richardson in a Spike Lee-directed commercial (left) for Nike's new Air Jordan XVII sneaker, the motion consists of bouncing your closed fists off the top of your forehead, as if you were pulling up invisible antennae. Following Miles and Richardson's lead, many of the Clippers have taken to using it as a taunting gesture after a spectacular move. Now other NBAers have also picked up the salute, for the most part without knowing the meaning of the motion. "I have no clue what it is," says Heat guard Eddie Jones, a nonantenna man. "What are these young kids going to come up with next?"

Miles and Richardson will say only that the move began as their inside joke. Already the race to define a new signature gesture is on among the league's other young guns. Says the Bulls' 19-year-old Tyson Chandler, "I don't know what the heck it is, but Eddy Curry [also 19] and I have been trying to put something together. They brought national attention to what they do, so it's time for us to step in and get us a little something."