David Stern implements dress code

[HelloHockeyFans]

No to 'do rags!

Instead of the 'do rags, baseball caps worn sideways and sagging, oversized jeans that some players favor, they would have to show up at the arena or the team plane in jackets, ties and slacks.

Sure, the league has a right to be concerned with the image its players present to the public, but a man's clothes are not necessarily a reflection of his character. Maybe the NBA ought to trust its fans to realize that.

Is this fair? Do owners of their teams have the right to implement a dress code for their employees, as most other companies around the world do? As the article mentions, this decision treads dangerously close to the race line given the style of wear he's outlawing is worn predominantly by African Americans.

What do you think?

[RougeUnderoos]

Looks like they are going to twist this one up into a big deal.

Employees have dress codes. Why should they be different?

Speaking of, I saw Kobe on the news last night and they showed him strutting along in this big fur coat and ridiculous medallion. You'd think with all his money he'd have someone around to tell him when he looks like a fool.

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

I don't get the race card here. For two reasons.

1) This affects everyone in the NBA. example can Steve Nash still show up in jeans and a t-shirt like he usually does? No

2) A lot of white folk try to dress that way too.

I'd argue that it is trying to get the Thug image or look out of basketball. Is that a predominantly black image...sure it is, but it is what it stands for not the person wearing it that is questionable, and has an negative connotation to it. It's the drug dealing, gang banging, drive by shooting image that the NBA doesn't like, and if that is a race issue, than there are bigger problems then this, which is clearly the case.

[HelloHockeyFans]

Originally posted by RougeUnderoos@Oct 20 2005, 09:25 PM
Looks like they are going to twist this one up into a big deal.

Employees have dress codes. Why should they be different?

Speaking of, I saw Kobe on the news last night and they showed him strutting along in this big fur coat and ridiculous medallion. You'd think with all his money he'd have someone around to tell him when he looks like a fool.

I'm not disagreeing with you, because I do think it's rather ugly when people wear the baggy jeans, huge chains, and have their hat on sideways... however, just to play devil's advocate, isn't fashion just personal taste?

It's just as easy to say that the "white" way of dressing with the American Eagle look of faded jeans, bright coloured t-shirts and trucker hats is ugly.

[habernac]

if you ever see a hockey player at the rink, he isn't wearing his sidways baseball cap and his big ugly 70's medallions. He's in a suit and tie. Even the junior players are like this. It's a dress code that's been around for years. Stern is most definitely trying to "clean up" his league's image. Nothing wrong with that.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by HelloHockeyFans@Oct 20 2005, 03:28 PM
I'm not disagreeing with you, because I do think it's rather ugly when people wear the baggy jeans, huge chains, and have their hat on sideways... however, just to play devil's advocate, isn't fashion just personal taste?

It's just as easy to say that the "white" way of dressing with the American Eagle look of faded jeans, bright coloured t-shirts and trucker hats is ugly.

Sure fashion is a personal taste. His was just bad on that night.

A 25 year old man wearing a white fur coat with a platinum toilet-seat hanging around his neck just looks like an idiot.

The other footage they showed of him he was actually dressed pretty snappy. That picture though, he looked foolish.

[JiriHrdina]

Well Marcus Camby thinks the league should provide stipends to allow players to purchase their new threads.

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=1...id=aoi7coZaGVys

[WCE]

Interested to see how large the back lash will be.

[ricosuave]

ah, theyre all freaks anyway.

[Cowperson]

Charles Barkley agrees with the commissioner:

"Young black kids dress like NBA players," he 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.

"See, these players make $10 million to $15 million a year, so nobody cares how they dress. But regular black kids go out into the real world and how they dress 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," he said. "That's reality. That's the No. 1 reason I support the dress code.

"From the NBA perspective, they've got a product to sell. They've got to make it as attractive as possible to fans, viewers and corporate sponsors.

"Dr. J [Julius Erving] told me years ago that we, the players, are the caretakers of the game. I think too many players today have lost sight of that."

On the Marcus Camby comments posted earlier:

He hears that Marcus Camby of the Denver Nuggets wants a stipend to buy clothes to adhere to the dress code, and Barkley cringes.

"Guys like that have lost perspective," he said. "What's he make, $8 million a year? It's like when Latrell Sprewell said he needed more than $14 million a year so that he could feed his family. Give me a break."

http://www.latimes.com/sports/basketball/n...eadlines-sports

Cowperson

[Cheese]

Completely agree with Stern. The players represent a company, and that company pays them millions to work for them. Most owners are white so the race issue is moot and is racist of the black person to suggest otherwise.
I have a dress code and so do most people working....for the time they represent their company on a plane or coming to and leaving the arena they should dress in whatever fashion the company tells them to.

The entire hip hop generation of NBAers have turned a lot of people away from the sport and Stern recognizes that.

[habernac]

good on Sir Charles. If I'm on the sidelines watching my team play, I don't show up in my Megadeth t-shirt and my jeans. And unless I'm applying to HMV or A&B Sound, I'm not showing up to a job interview like that either.

[Winsor_Pilates]

I think this could have a negative effect on the league's popularity and merch sales. Alot of kids look up to these "cool" hip/hop type guys and they sell alot of jerseys and tickets. The NBA has been cashing in on image for a long time, and they may stop paying now. They need to make sure they don't make the NBA's image too boring and turn people off.

[Cheese]

Originally posted by Winsor_Pilates@Oct 23 2005, 09:32 PM
I think this could have a negative effect on the league's popularity and merch sales. Alot of kids look up to these "cool" hip/hop type guys and they sell alot of jerseys and tickets. The NBA has been cashing in on image for a long time, and they may stop paying now. They need to make sure they don't make the NBA's image too boring and turn people off.

nah I dont agree...the days of Bird vs Magic werent hampered by the fact they didnt dress a certain way.
I think it gives the league a better opportunity with those who despise the hip hop image.

[troutman]

I bet some of these hip hop outfits cost a lot more than most three-piece suits. Isn't this just a question of fashion? There is a tint of racism to all this IMO.

[habernac]

I don't think there's anything racist about wanting your people to look professional.

[RougeUnderoos]

Originally posted by troutman@Oct 24 2005, 03:14 PM
I bet some of these hip hop outfits cost a lot more than most three-piece suits. Isn't this just a question of fashion? There is a tint of racism to all this IMO.

I sense a slight tint of racism but only because it's a bunch of old rich white guys telling young black guys how to dress.

But when I think about it, I'm pretty sure the owners didn't come up with this for any reason other than what they say -- they want them to look professional. They aren't up in their towers swishing brandy and thinking "we'll show these black guys who the boss really is".

The owners are all a bunch of tycoons and I'll bet dollars to donuts that they have a dress code at all their other businesses.

Mark Cuban seems like a pretty relaxed guy but I doubt all the nerds that work for his computer business aren't allowed to wear sideways hats and have their ginch sticking out of their pants.

[troutman]

Originally posted by habernac@Oct 24 2005, 09:50 PM
I don't think there's anything racist about wanting your people to look professional.

Ah, there's the rub. Who gets to decide what is professional? Rich old white guys?

[Patek23]

Originally posted by troutman@Oct 24 2005, 03:49 PM
Ah, there's the rub. Who gets to decide what is professional? Rich old white guys?

Looking professional too me means dressing appropriatelty for the job at hand, if your going to a job interview for a computer consultant and person A wears a suit while person B wears his Jordan Jersey, baggy pants and a pair of nike basketball shoes, regardless of race your going to go with the one dressed appropriately on your first judgement which dictates alot (not saying the guy dressed all casual wouldn't get the job because Person A could be a complete dipwad, while Person B is a casual laid back genius), while if put the other way around on first impressions Person A shows up in his suit for a basketball try-out while Person B wears his same attire than your perspective is going to change, and yet again the same scenarios apply.


In the terms of the NBA it's not about looking proffesional it's about maintaining a good image, many NBA fans feel they need to dress "thugged" out and act the persona that many of the players keep yet truly are not, and as someone who has recently been in high school based upon this judgement (yet again regardless of race because half the time the wigger kids were worse because they felt they had to act more "black") it leads to a lot of violence because these kids feel that if Kobe or Iverson do it (more like act it) than so can they. IMO the NHL is vice versa the NHL could use some lightening up to attract more cultural fans who feel it's too "white" or conservative I say we get all the players wiggered out to attract those fans who like to keep the image from the NBA!

[Winsor_Pilates]

^^Mental image of Sutter in a do-rag. :P