Dress Code Doesn't "Suit" Players

What’s wrong with a suit? That’s all I want to know. What’s wrong with a suit? The NBA’s new dress code doesn’t even make it mandatory for players to wear one all the time, or even wear anything like one, as you can get away with wearing designer jeans, a collared shirt and a jacket. How hard is that? The guys in the league seem to already have the designer jeans, and I’m betting them most of them already own the jacket and shirt. The outfit isn’t even the real issue here; it’s just something to complain about. The issue is whether or not the league should have the power to implement a dress code and what precedent was previously set that would cause such an implementation.

The outfit is simple enough. Just put on a shirt with a collar and a sports coat. There’s nothing to it. It’s like practicing free throws, you might not want to do it, but it’s not going to hurt you. Lots of players have expressed disinterest with wearing suits, saying it’s racist for the league to require suits to be worn. It’s not. The NBA is full of millionaires and people that are, whether they want to be or not, role models to millions of fans. Wearing a suit doesn’t take away your street credit, if that’s what they’re worried about. Jay-Z and Diddy wear suits all the time, they even have clothing lines that produce their own lines of suits. A suit doesn’t make you historically insignificant. Michael Jordan is one of the best-dressed men of all time. And it doesn’t make you a slave to a racist corporate machine; Martin Luther King Jr. even wore suits. So did Miles Davis and John Coltrane. But so did Stan Getz and Bill Evans. The suit is not about race; it’s about looking like a professional. This is not about dispelling the hip-hop culture that is present in the NBA. It’s about getting guys to stop wearing t-shirts and start looking like they care that the fans are shelling out premium prices to see them play, or in many cases, sit on the bench in a t-shirt. There’s no reason not to do it. When people, even rappers, want to look their best, they put on a suit. Jalen Rose as much a part of hip-hop culture as he is a part of the NBA and he is currently one of the best-dressed players in the league.

The issue isn’t that David Stern is trying to put black players in their place. It’s that he’s trying to keep players, regardless of ethnicity, from wearing t-shirts to the games. This never used to be an issue. If you look at the historical precedent set by players like Jordan, Patrick Ewing and even Chris Webber, one of the forefathers of the hip-hop crowd, they all wear suits. Clothing was a point of pride for many of these players as they frequently tried to out-dress their teammates. Wear a t-shirt when you’re having fun, like at a championship celebration or a charity event, but when you show up for work, dress like a consummate professional. Stern is simply trying to perpetuate the idea that the NBA is a “professional” basketball league filled with “professionals” doing their best at their craft. Not that you can’t do your best in a Dr. J throwback, but it certainly doesn’t hold the same weight as a three-piece suit does. Throwbacks are great and a lot of fun to wear, but they have their place. Larry Brown wears them, but certainly not when he’s walking the sidelines during a game. I bet Mo Cheeks does too. These coaches, just like most of the players, know when to dress up, and when to dress down.

But then you have to ask, “Is it really the leagues business to tell a player what he can and can’t wear?” Maybe not, but when an owner who’s paying Jason Williams almost $7 million a year looks and sees his investment sitting on a bench in a t-shirt looking thoroughly disinterested in the game that’s going on while he’s out with an ingrown toenail, it might be time for somebody to step in. I’ve never heard a fan say, “Man, look at Kobe. He looks like crap sitting there in his fine suit.” But I have heard them say, “Why is Allen Iverson wearing jeans? I don’t make $14 million a year but I still have to dress up for work, why shouldn’t he?” Because fans are beginning to feel a certain amount of discontent with the state of the players dress, and the league feels it’s important to please the fans, the league has decided that it must step in. There are many
institutions that require their employees to dress a certain way. Many schools do the same thing. But at the same time, many places of work don’t have to set these kinds of codes because people have an intrinsic feeling for what they should wear while on the job. When that non-verbal standard of fashion is met, there is no need for a code to be set, but when the standard of fashion in a given work environment consistently falls below that of the par level, a code must be set. That is just what is happening in the NBA recently. To keep the league looking as stylish and classy as it did in the 80’s and 90’s it seems that the dress code is merited. And because the league feels it is merited, and the owners pay the salary of the players, it seems to be within their right to require a dress code. This is no different than if a law firm requires its partners to dress in suits, or if Starbucks requires its employees to wear green aprons and white shirts. Dress codes are set all over the country to provide uniformity throughout the work place and so that fashion simply, isn’t an issue.

And that’s what this has come down to; fashion simply, isn’t an issue. Kobe Bryant expressed those sentiments, as did Lebron James. Because this generation of NBA players sense of formality seems to be relaxed in comparison to the previous generations, and Stern wants the NBA to follow up on it’s success over the last 25 years, the league must set a minimum standard of dress for the players. There’s nothing racist about it, the league just wants the players to look fly. After all, what’s wrong with a suit?