NBA dress code!

[gg]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=ap-nbadresscode&prov=ap&type=lgns

NEW YORK (AP) -- There will be no more dress down days in the NBA.

The league announced in a memo to teams on Monday that a minimum dress code will go into effect at the start of the regular season on Nov. 1.

Players will be expected to wear business casual attire whenever they participate in team or league activities, including arriving at games, leaving games, conducting interviews and making promotional or other appearances.

``If they're trying to change the image of league, that's cool,'' Suns forward Shawn Marion said.

Some teams already have their own dress code in place.

Portland coach Nate McMillian is known for his strict rules, including bans on headbands and on cell phones on the team bus.

``It's important that the players understand they have to respect the game,'' McMillian said in August. ``They have to respect the league. And they have to respect the fans. You must be a professional at all times.''

Players will no longer be able to wear:

-- Sleveless shirts

-- Shorts

-- T-shirts

-- Chains, pendants, or medallions worn over the player's clothes.

-- Sunglasses while indoors

-- Headphones (other than on the team bus or plane, or in the team locker room).

Players will also now be required to wear a sport coat on the bench when they are not in uniform.

``I think it is appropriate, definitely, on the bench,'' Marion said. ``I think you should be in a nice shirt and slacks.''

Not all the players feel that the new dress code is in the best image of the league.

``I understand they're making it out to make us look better to corporate and big business. But we don't really sell to big business,'' Jazz 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.''

Commissioner David Stern is expected to announce the penalty for dress code violations next week

[TomShane]

The NBA doesn't care about black people.

Actually, if they wanted to make a statement, they'd actually test for marijuana. That would be funny. They'd have to play the '05 season as a giant 3 on 3 tournament.

[gg]

The NBA doesn't care about black people.

Actually, if they wanted to make a statement, they'd actually test for marijuana. That would be funny. They'd have to play the '05 season as a giant 3 on 3 tournament.

yes pot is a performance enhancing drug!

[Bugg]

It's getting pretty funny to watch a bunch of spoiled indulged millionaires spend big bucks to buy ugly clothes to look like extras in "Beat It" or "The Warriors". And spending that kind of money is how most won't be millionaires for too long after they get bounced.

Stern must have run a poll of NBA.com customers indicating that sales of NBA's crappy clothes had dropped, and the overt attempted street cred was beginning to cut into sales with all-important demo of bored suburban dumba$$ white teenage boys given to playing video games and sleeping through high school.

Next, you'll tell me Allan Houston retired. Was he still playing?

Pot-official breakfast product of the... NBA?...they think..I dunno...what ever.Heck, endorsing pot might actually be a boon to sales to the above demo, if that market for marijuana amongst such demo wasn't already saturated.

Next, Stern will get totally out of hand and ask players to play hard, stay in shape and play defense.

Simple fact though-no male over 30 gives an eff about the NBA until around April. It must be getting hard to sell cars and beer when the eyeballs aren't there. The players don't care. Why should anyone else?

I only want to get down some money on an under/over line on the date Larry Brown has to be held back from attempting to murder Stephon"I'm the best PG in the NBA" Marbury. My money's on around December 8th. And also, long-term, when Brown flies the Dolans' MSG coop for his next greatest job ever. I'm betting UNC around summer, 2007, though UCLA's a possibility too.

[TomShane]

Great post Bugg. This is all a product of Stern's and Phil Knight's making. Stern took the NBA's corporate identity, built during the Bird/Magic "look white people can play, too" era, and tried to skew it toward the younger, inner-city demographic. They took the icon of Michael Jordan, who never, ever embraced an ethnic/black identity--making him as marketable in Cabrini Green as he was on Wall Street--and plastered his image in every ghetto in America and put his $120 dollar shoes on ever rapper and crack dealer in North America. The result? 20 years later, the only people who pay attention to the NBA are inner-city youths and now Stern is frightened because he's finding out that inner-city youths don't buy Buicks and they don't sign contracts with IBM to fill their offices with photo-copiers. Uh-oh! Time to de-ethnicize the game! It's almost comedic to watch.

[GimmeShelter]

Great post Bugg. This is all a product of Stern's and Phil Knight's making. Stern took the NBA's corporate identity, built during the Bird/Magic "look white people can play, too" era, and tried to skew it toward the younger, inner-city demographic. They took the icon of Michael Jordan, who never, ever embraced an ethnic/black identity--making him as marketable in Cabrini Green as he was on Wall Street--and plastered his image in every ghetto in America and put his $120 dollar shoes on ever rapper and crack dealer in North America. The result? 20 years later, the only people who pay attention to the NBA are inner-city youths and now Stern is frightened because he's finding out that inner-city youths don't buy Buicks and they don't sign contracts with IBM to fill their offices with photo-copiers. Uh-oh! Time to de-ethnicize the game! It's almost comedic to watch.

Exactly and it's a shame as the NBA was great TV from the 70's right up until the early to mid 90's.

I used to think my lack of regular season interest was due to the Knicks demise or simply because I am not a kid playing the sport any longer.

Wrong. It's the current product which absolutely sucks and in many cases is unwatchable except for play-off time.

The only saving grace in the METRO area is watching Kidd and Carter play occassionally.

[Bugg]

Stern has been selling so long and so hard that he's allowed that to take priority over the game itself.They don't show many bowls of NBA arenas during TV broadcasts, because so many of the seats are empty. The ratings are way down. You can change the wrapper, but it doesn't make the product inside any better.

He wanted an NBA filled with attitude and "check me out" street cred-until it became clear that corprorate and white America isn't buying it. You can fault Jordan for going whole hog for Nike, but even when he came back he always played hard,passed, played defense,stayed in shape and gave his all. These players now expect all the bling and don't put in the work save a few like Kidd. It's almost comical that Stern thinks merely by dressing these guys in suits he can change how messed up the product is.

[Blackout]

i cant wait for the season to start, this year should be fun

[Bugg]

If they follow through on fining guys, it will get interesting, because this was not collectively bargained. If someone is dressed in neat jeans and a sweater, do they get fined less? Which is all typical with Stern's being more concerned with the NBA's image rather than it's product.

[BlackLabelJetsFan]

I think this is my favorite player quote regarding the dress code:

"I have no problem dressing up ... because I know I'm a nice-looking guy. But as far as chains, I definitely feel that's a racial statement. Almost 100 percent of the guys in the league who are young and black wear big chains. So I definitely don't agree with that at all." -- Pacers swingman Stephen Jackson, quoted in the Oct. 19 Indianapolis Star

Others, like Grant Hill, Lebron, Ricky Davis, and Paul Pierce are fine with it.

Personally, I like it, at least on the bench for players not playing. Its old school. Its the same as facial hair/haircut policies, team dress codes, code of conduct stuff. Discipline, conformity, etc. aren't necessarily a bad thing.