After the brawl between the players and fans in Detroit last season during a game between the Pistons and Indiana Pacers – a brawl that will henceforth be known as the “Throwdown in Motown”- the NBA needed to clean up its act in a big way, which started with the suspension of Pacers bad boy Ron Artest for the remainder of last season.
In the offseason the union agreed to have players sign more autographs and make appearances at season ticket-holder functions to improve their image. But the biggest step the league took, in what commissioner David Stern views as the next step to cleaning up its image, is implementing a new league-wide dress code for its players.
The new dress code requires players to wear what Stern calls “business casual” when engaged in team or league business. Players will no longer be allowed to wear cut-offs, jerseys, shorts, T-shirts, headgear of any kind, sunglasses, headphones, chains, pendants or medallions.
Stern’s ruling immediately sent the NBA world into an uproar, with players, coaches and the media taking their stance on one side of the line or the other.
Some players are outraged at the notion of a dress code. Allen Iverson called it “fake.” Paul Pierce argued that NBA players are not businessmen but entertainers, and even mild-mannered superstar Tim Duncan said that Stern’s new policy was “a load of crap” and “basically retarded.” Others like Alonzo Mourning and LeBron James agree with Stern’s notion that the players are professional, and with that comes certain protocols, one of them being how you dress.
“It’s not a big deal, not to me,” James said. “This is a job and we want to have fun, but it’s a job and we should look like we’re going to work.”
Marcus Camby and former Cavalier point guard Brevin Knight even want the league to compensate the players to offset the new clothing costs.
You’ve got to be kidding me. The kids making seven bucks an hour working at American Eagle have to pay for their own work attire, but an NBA player making seven figures needs a stipend?
However, the debate runs much deeper. As long as the NBA is a mostly black league based in a predominantly white country, issues like this will always come down to debates about racism. When you have an old white coach like Phil Jackson saying that players have been dressing in prison garb and calling it gangster and thuggish, it is no surprise that players like Jason Richardson and Steven Jackson are claiming that Stern’s new ruling is racially motivated.
While I’ve never thought Stern had racist motives in this case – or the entry age decision for that matter – I am beginning to think that he may have unintentionally crossed the line this time. It is the part about chains and medallions that players like Jackson and Gary Payton find especially racist.
“I think what they’re saying is that’s looking a particular way and that’s a thuggish way,” Payton said. “I don’t think that’s right. I don’t think you can categorize or judge anyone by what kind of jewelry they wear.”
Many players see this as the league wanting to distance itself from hip-hop culture, and possibly African-American culture.
“We don’t really sell to big business,” Utah guard Raja Bell said. “We sell to kids and people who are into the NBA hip-hop world. They may be marketing to the wrong people with this.”
He’s right. No matter how hard Stern tries, he can’t change the NBA into the NFL. He can dress the players up in suits and take away their jewelry, but that doesn’t change what today’s NBA really is.
It’s a league that is deeply rooted in the hip-hop, streetball culture, and not even putting Iverson in a suit on national television can change that.
It’s something that has its roots in Dr. J playing ball in front of crowded rooftops overlooking caged blacktops. It’s in everything the league is.
It’s in the baggy shorts, it’s in the showy dunks, it’s in the behind the back passes, and it’s in every pair of Air Jordan’s you’ve ever bought.
What Stern doesn’t understand is that the NBA has become its own culture.
That being said, the dress code is what it is. It certainly doesn’t make David Stern a racist; it just seems he is out of touch with what his league has become, and certainly with the culture it is a part of. Today’s NBA superstars wear cornrows, sag their pants, and would rather wear a throw-back jersey than the three-piece suits of Michael Jordan.
But Sir Charles Barkley thinks that the new NBA is hurting the kids who imitate the culture in their daily lives.
“Young black kids dress like NBA players,” Barkley said. “Unfortunately, they don’t get paid like NBA players. So when they go out in the real world, what they wear is held against them. If a well-dressed white kid and a black kid wearing a do-rag and throwback jersey came to me in a job interview, I’d hire the white kid. That’s reality.”
Regardless of which side of the issue you find yourself on, I think the solution is clear. When all else fails, we must ask “The Diesel,” Shaquille O’Neal, what to do.
“I think David Stern should get with the mothers of the NBA, because they have an association, and let the moms decide what the dress code should be,” Shaq said.
Brandon Castel is a senior in journalism. He gave up his dreams of NBA glory after hearing he would be forced to abide by this new dress code and decided to write about his frustration instead. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].
