Gigi Datome's man bun is dead, long live Gigi Datome's man bun

During the Celtics’ surprise run to the Eastern Conference’s seventh seed in 2015, Luigi “Gigi” Datome became of a cult hero in Boston, if only for his man bun, pregame pension for a hot cup of coffee, extremely chill vacation destinations and Jimi Hendrix vinyl collection. But mostly for the man bun.

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Seriously, this dude rocks a sweet mane:

A throw-in by the Detroit Pistons in Boston’s 2015 trade deadline salary dump of Tayshaun Prince, the Italian sharpshooter became a metaphor for that team’s surprising success, serving as a human version of “Gino Time” — the bearded and long-haired dancer from an old “American Bandstand” clip that the Celtics play on the Jumbotron during the fourth quarter of blowout victories at TD Garden.

In much the same way they celebrated Brian Scalabrine before him, Boston fans chanted Gigi’s name during garbage time, and he even impacted a few key wins down the stretch for the Celtics two years ago, including a 22-point outing in a win over the Milwaukee Bucks to close out the regular season.

The 29-year-old Datome is even more beloved back across the pond, where he’s served as a starting wing for Istanbul-based Euroleague team Fenerbahce since fulfilling his NBA dreams from 2013-2015.

He and a slew of other former NBA players, including ex-Atlanta Hawks center Pero Antic, helped lead Fenerbahce to the franchise’s first-ever Euroleague championship over the weekend, and Datome’s world-famous man bun became the center of attention during the postgame celebration.

Gigi had promised Pero he could cut off the man bun if they won the title, and true to his word after scoring 11 points on five shots in the 80-64 victory against Olympiacos Piraeus, Datome sat courtside as Antic struggled for what seemed like ages to cut through the Italian stallion’s luscious locks:

Datome didn’t mind, partly because the haircut came out pretty decent, and mostly because he had a trophy to catch the tears of joy he shed in celebration of his first major championship as a player:

Meanwhile, Antic rejoiced with his own trophy in hand — the sawed-off man bun:

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge rejoiced in the man bun’s demise, holding out hope it might inspire Kelly Olynyk, who has carried Boston’s man bun torch since Datome’s departure:

Meanwhile, Datome found another way to keep the leftover lettuce out of his face, donning a straight-brimmed championship hat that led one genius Twitter user to share the newest Gigi doppelganger:

Never fear, dear man bun fans, as Gigi took to Facebook Live on Monday to reveal the only thing more unstoppable than Fenerbahce: Datome’s hair. Incredibly, he still had enough left for a mini man bun:

As ever, the best part about this video was when Datome, the chillest man in basketball, still holding the championship trophy some 16 hours later, told his his fans, “Jim Morrison say hi”:

Never change, Gigi. Also, here’s hoping noted nightclub fan Pero Antic didn’t lose Datome’s man bun somewhere. The next logical destination for that sweet tuft of hair is the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach