Too much Bling in NBA?

Story from the LA Times, Oct. 19, 2005

"I don't think there will be a problem unless somebody wants to make a problem," [commissioner David Stern] told reporters in New York. "If they really want to make a problem, they're going to have to make a decision about how they want to spend their adult life in terms of playing in the NBA or not."

Wow! That's quite a threat. Basically the commissioner is suggesting a dismantling of his entire league/business in order to enforce a dress code which is supposed to "help" the league's image problems. Hmmm. Something doesn't make sense here. Do any "image" problems actually stem from the way people dress?!? Or do they stem from what people do?

I work in an office that kind-of has a dress code. And I try to push that shit to the limits as often as I can. I started first by wearing shirts without collars and then it was jeans that were "faded" and baggy on casual Friday. You know how I get away with it? Because in every other way I am the example of professionalism. Its my job to be so, but no so much to dress so.

"The players have been dressing in prison garb for the last five or six years," Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. "All the stuff that goes on, it's like gangsta, thuggery stuff. It's time. It's a good time to do that. But one must remember where one came from. I was wearing bib overalls when I was a player."

And this is the real NBA Image problem. Its not that the players dress in "prison garb", (BTW, Phil, I don't know when the last time it was that you went to prison, but, um, this is hardly a credible characterization of player wardrobe.) but that a few players act like criminals. If the NBA has a problem with the kind of people that it employs, then it should fire them. But major sports leagues are not wont to shoot themselves in the foot and always take the side of "talent", which is the side of revenue. If you are a great player, even a good player, seemingly limitless are the things that you can do and still keep your job. Fans, and therefore owners, want the best players in the world on the court/field and pay mucho to see them there.

"When you are selling[my emphasis] a sport overwhelmingly populated by young black males to an older white audience, the reality is that impressions, first or otherwise, often determine your product's success," [Steve A. ]Smith wrote.

Alas, the question of racial motivation. I don't believe that this decision is strictly racially motivated. For example, Jason Williams, a white Point guard now on the roster of my Miami Heat, often takes heat for being "more gansta" than his teammates and Steve Nash, who often dresses in baggy jeans and faded T-shirts will have to clean up his act. However, this new rule is undoubtedly cultural in its implementation. IT disproportionately affects the wardrobes of a specific group of individuals and specifically targets a specific type of culture prevalent in its work place. What would be the reaction if all NBA players were forced to dress like gangsters instead of like business men? It would be just as uncomfortable for "non gansta's" to dress that way, they would feel ridiculous, because it is not a culture that represents who they are. The fact is, your culture is your culture and if the middle class whites can't handle the fact the after and before the game(the game is by the way the only thing people PAY to see)some of the athletes they admire will dress representative of a culture that is NOT white middle-class, then that's their own problem of closed mindedness.

Here's something to ponder: take a look at the three pictures in this post. Is what these folks are wearing a problem for the NBA/white middle class or is it something beneath the surface?

My hope is that some of the players would stand up to management in this case. Take the suspensions and fines and let the quality of the play suffer. It won't happen, but that my liberal hope.

For another point of view, check out Earth Rooster, who hates basketball.