Chris Paul is wearing a mask now, too ()

Looks like this year's hot new accessory is the clear protective mask, gang. First, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant started rocking one ; now, fellow Staples Center tenant Chris Paul is sporting the face guard. By the end of next week, each team will appoint one player to wear a mask, except for the New Jersey Nets, who will tap head coach Avery Johnson to wear it, because that seems like it would be adorable. Paul's wearing the mask thanks to a "nasal fracture" that he suffered during the first quarter of the Clippers' Friday night win over the San Antonio Spurs, when he was caught in the chops by the flailing left arm of Spurs swingman Danny Green, who has a history of damaging the faces of point guards with "Paul" in their last names . A Clippers spokesman told Baxter Holmes of the Los Angeles Times that Paul "will be wearing [the mask] indefinitely until the injury is healed." That news displeased recently imported Clipper Kenyon Martin, who wore a mask after breaking his nose in 2002 . "It's annoying and he plays point guard, so I don't know how he's going to do it," Martin told the Times' Melissa Rohlin . "Trust me, I don't know how he's going to go out there and manuever with that thing on." Luckily, unlike the primitive protection Martin wore way back in the Oughts, the mask Paul is wearing appears to include no leg manacles or concrete shoes, so his mobility should remain excellent. For video of Paul sustaining the busted schnozz, hit the jump.