Movember Momentum

As the Movember movement rolls on, fans might be noticing the burgeoning mustachios on a quartet of Cavaliers – Anderson Varejao, Matthew Dellavedova, Alex Kirk and Joe Harris.

So far this season, Varejao’s been doing his thing on the floor – crashing the boards and hitting the open shot. He’s among the league’s Top 15 in field goal percentage. Delly was off to a solid start before being sidelined by a knee injury against Portland. And Kirk has been bouncing back and forth between Cleveland and Canton.

But it’s been Joe Harris who’s been one of the big surprises of the young season.

A four-year player at Virginia, Harris has taken advantage of the added minutes. In Friday night’s win over Boston, he was big on both ends – canning a big three-pointer and knocking down three clutch free throws, combining with LeBron James and Shawn Marion to slow down Rajon Rondo. On Saturday night at The Q, the rookie from Washington state turned in his first double-digit performance – drilling four treys in the Wine and Gold’s lopsided victory.

We’ll follow the sharpshooting freshman as he continues to compile minutes and statistics, but today Cavs.com caught up with Joe Harris to talk about his hirsute endeavor …

How did you get started with the Movember movement?

Joe Harris: I think it’s a big thing in Australia. That’s where it started actually, in Australia. So Delly’s always done it. He never really makes the rookies do a whole lot of anything, but this was the first thing he asked us to do. And at first, Alex Kirk and I were a little hesitant to get it done. But then LeBron and a couple other guys were like: “You’re growing out the mustache.”

Tell us about your involvement …

Harris: It’s for a really good cause, obviously helping to raise a lot of awareness. And we all have accounts where people can donate money to the Movember cause.

It was pretty cool, because at the beginning of the month we sat down at The Q and they brought a barber in and took this straight-edge razor and he cleaned us up. And we haven’t shaved since. They wanted us to grow handlebars in particular. And it’s starting to get pretty gnarly. I’ve never really had a mustache or anything before so I’m getting used to getting stuff caught in it every once in a while. You drink milk or whatever it is and it gets stuck in your mustache.

You realize that if you keep playing well with it, you may have to keep the mustache past November …

Harris: You know if these guys tell me it’s gotta stay, more than likely it’s gonna stay.

All kidding aside, how big is this movement in terms of men’s health?

Harris: I think it’s really important. I feel like most of the national media attention is towards women and breast cancer awareness, which is obviously hugely important. But I think men have a tendency to kind of forget about themselves. But it really is a big issue and it’s important to get regular check-ups and make sure everything’s ok with the prostate.

And I think it’s good that we’re raising some awareness for it. And any time, whether it’s a big issue or a little issue, the more awareness you can raise is important, no matter what the situation is.