NBA Halloween highlights: 'Pornstache' Westbrook, Khal D-Will-go, Swaggy Rick James, Li'l A.I. and more

It's Oct. 31, which can mean only one thing — the frustrating lack of closure to a number of young extension-eligible players who will become restricted free agents this summer! No, wait, that's not it — well, I mean, that is it, but it's not all. It's also Halloween, which means a bunch of NBA players are celebrating the somewhat shocking rarity of finding costumes that fit the very tall and muscular among us. Let's review some of the more notable All Hallow's Eve entries, shall we?

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Several days before his Halloween turned truly horrifying, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook got us started with his portrayal of George "Pornstache" Mendez, Pablo Schreiber's alternately terrifying and laughable mustachioed corrections officer from "Orange is The New Black":

Several of Westbrook's teammates suited up, too, with Andre Roberson going with the ol' reliable Ghostbuster costume, Steven Adams (who'd have made a dynamite "Pornstache" as recently as a month ago) as "Cast Away"-era Tom Hanks, Lance Thomas as Finn from Cartoon Network's "Adventure Time" and, tucked away in the right-hand corner, rookie Mitch McGary as Batman villain Bane from "The Dark Knight Rises":

While Westbrook went Netflix, Deron Williams went the HBO GO route, donning his warrior's braid to dress as Khal Drogo in a "Game of Thrones"-inspired couples costume with his wife, Amy, as Daenerys Targaryen, a.k.a. Khaleesi:

The Brooklyn Nets point guard was joined at The Players' Tribune's Halloween party by teammates Brook Lopez, whose foot injury might be keeping him out of the lineup, but didn't prevent him from kicking it as the Black Ranger:

(Not as good as J.R. Smith: Power Ranger, but still, pretty decent.)

And yes, that is Andrei Kirilenko as a member of the Na'vi from "Avatar":

Young Nets Mason Plumlee, Cory Jefferson and Sergey Karasev went as Homer Simpson, Superman and a skeleton, respectively, according to The Brooklyn Game, but to me, none of those are nearly as much fun as rookie Markel Brown explaining why "Freddy vs. Jason" is his all-time favorite Halloween movie:

"... because you have two characters in the same movie, and they just trying to destroy each other, while killing others." That "while killing others" is just absolutely wonderful.

Likewise wonderful: Former Net and current Washington Wizards forward Paul Pierce, a longtime staple of NBA Halloween greatness, decided to both get involved in the unstoppable superheroization of American popular entertainment and stay true to his new squad's color scheme:

Maybe this is just my irrepressible patriotism shining through, but for my money, Pierce's Cap was a more successful superhero effort than his former Boston Celtics teammate Jared Sullinger's Extra-Muscly Spider-Man With Necklaces:

While a good superhero costume's always a winner, you've always got to award high marks for a little bit of extra creativity. So here's to you, New York Knicks guard Iman Shumpert, for showing up Friday as a literal sneakerhead:

Sure, Nick Young's injured and can't play for what might be the worst Los Angeles Lakers team we've ever seen, but not even that can get him down while he's playing the "Chappelle's Show" representation of Rick James:

But despite Swaggy's work in the role he was clearly born to play, the award for best commitment this Halloween comes from this Philadelphia 76ers fan — or, perhaps more accurately, whoever was holding the marker while putting all the right touches on this Allen Iverson costume:

All that's missing is a receipt from T.G.I. Friday's.

With all due respect to the players and this one remarkable little fan, though, the best scare of NBA Halloween came from an owner:

Man, it's only Game 1, and Steve Ballmer's out here terrifying his son after a Los Angeles Clippers win. The only thing scarier than that is ... well, Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder's face (via the great @cjzero).

Here's hoping you don't see anything scarier than that this Halloween weekend.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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