Sportsview: NBA dress code not out of line
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-05 10:42

When the NBA unveiled its new dress code, there was so much whining and opining you'd have thought David Stern wanted to bring back short shorts. Or make players wear plaid in an oh-so-attractive polyester blend.

Judging by what we've seen this first week, the new edict is about as restrictive as lint. Stern may have come off looking like the fun police, but he's not requiring anything different than what virtually every other employer does. Less, actually. Guys don't have to be buttoned down in a three-piece suit and tie. They can still wear jeans and be so hip it hurts.

And if a jacket and dress shoes can help win back fans turned off by some of the off-court shenanigans, what's so awful about that?

"We can wear jeans and collared shirts. That's just so basic and so easy, I can't believe anybody would even say anything about it," Chicago Bulls forward Eric Piatkowski said. "I was a little bit worried that they were going to tell us that to and from the airport, going to hotels and whatnot, that we were going to have to wear suits.

"They were awfully easy on us. It could have been much worse."

Besides, from the looks of some of the outfits this week, a dress code isn't putting a major cramp in anybody's style.

LeBron James was decked out in a white collared shirt and red, V-neck sweater under a black velour pinstriped dress jacket when he arrived for Cleveland's opener Wednesday night. Richard Hamilton traded in his customary Rip City jersey for a cornflower-blue suit and matching blue-and-white striped shirt — with his No. 32 stitched on the back of the collar. Tyson Chandler paired jeans with a long suede coat.

Even A.I. cleaned up, wearing a white dress shirt, and gray slacks and sport coat for Wednesday night's game in Detroit.

"I follow the rules just like I've always done," James said. "I don't have a problem with it."

There were plenty who did, however. When the NBA announced the dress code, it was accused of everything from micromanagement to racism. But let's not forget that the NBA is first and foremost a business, and its image was in need of a good scrubdown even before last year's ugly brawl in Detroit.

When Michael Jordan was around, he was so impeccably dressed he looked like he'd stepped out of GQ. But as the league got younger and that line between sport and entertainment faded, players started looking more shabby than chic. Instead of suits, you saw saggy, baggy jeans, and throwback jerseys. Workboots, not wingtips. Oversized chains and medallions that looked tacky no matter how many carats of diamonds they contained.

That hip-hop appeal may have worked with the kids, not so much with their parents and corporate America — the folks who pay the league's bills. The growing list of run-ins with the law didn't help, making the NBA seem too edgy for the mainstream.

"It's nice to have the luxury of wearing whatever you want, but they're trying to change the image of the NBA. Guys have gotten bad press over the years and they're trying to clean it up," said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who had to upgrade his wardrobe with some new shoes and shirts.

And, really, the players are getting off easy. No one's asking them to give up their SUVs or take a pay cut, just wear something decent when they're representing the league. Jay-Z might go for the hip-hop look when he's in the stands, but he was in a pretty sharp suit when he bought a piece of the Nets.

The players don't have to go corporate, either. While Kevin Burleson wore a beige suit with a silk tie on the Charlotte Bobcats bench the other night, Jake Voskuhl was in jeans, a lavender button-down — untucked, of course — and a chalk-striped gray jacket that looked like something out of "The Shawshank Redemption."

"We're professionals. If the league makes the rules, we abide by them," Piatkowski said. "It's a great lifestyle. I don't think we have a lot to complain about."

For those that still do, get another job. But good luck finding one that pays even a fraction of what the NBA does, and doesn't come with a more-restrictive dress code.

AllState Corp.'s "business casual" code doesn't allow jeans, though individual departments can occasionally let loose for a "Jean Day." UPS tells its drivers and management how they can and can't wear their hair, and forget about growing a beard.

"We are certainly focused on post-Detroit as a low point in perception of our league," Stern said. "It sort of defined NBA players for a period of time. Our players are really good guys and deserved more respect than they were getting."

A dress code isn't the answer to all of the NBA's problems. But it's a reasonable place to start.