Watch the Knicks mock Cleanthony Early's high school hair bun

New York Knicks training camp is well underway, which means we in the media can finally ditch speculative nonsense articles and focus on real, nitty-gritty basketball reporting...about rookie forward Cleanthony Early's hair bun experiment in high school:

Several teammates were asked to comment on the bun. You have to admire the candor of Carmelo Anthony and Iman Shumpert, who copped to rocking the ponytail in their youth. Shane Larkin and Amar'e Stoudemire were far more critical; STAT was particularly brutal.

Hey Amar'e, I love you, man, but maybe people in glass fashion houses shouldn't throw stones. Remember the denim vest look, or the ill-fated cornrows experiment?

While Early doesn't go ahead and say who inspired the pulled-back 'do, I have a theory. The style reminds me of a childhood hero of mine: the villain from movie "3 Ninjas." You can see him at the 5:25 mark:

He was played by a guy with the all-time badass name of Rand Kingsley -- dude only acted in two films, according to IMDB, making him a brief, shooting star in the mold of Chris Smith. He was some kind of crooked businessman who was also totally awesome at karate...like basically everyone back in the Reagan/H.W. Bush era. He was ultimately done in by some jellybeans.

Was Rand Kingsley the progenitor of the Cleanthony Early haircut? The investigators here at P&T remain hard at work tracking down leads:

Dear @Clearly_BallLyf was your ponytail inspired by the bad guy from the movie "3 Ninjas?" I'm a professional journalist, BTW.

— Joseph Flynn (@ChinaJoeFlynn) October 2, 2014

We will keep you up to date on this story as it develops.