NBA Bans 'Hip-Hop Dress', Players, Coaches React

[fan 4ever]

NBA Bans 'Hip-Hop Dress', Players, Coaches React

By EbenGregory and Nolan Strong

Date: 10/20/2005 11:50 am

With the blessing of the NBA Players Association, the NBA has set forth a "minimum" dress code that will be implemented starting with the 2005-2006 season.

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

In addition, players will no longer be able to wear sleeveless shirts, shorts, T-shirts, chains, pendants, or medallions worn over the player's clothes.

Sunglasses while indoors, and headphones (other than on the team bus or plane, or in the team locker room) have also been banned.

The dress code is a decisive shift away from the hip-hop culture that has become a fabric of the NBA during the past years.

While some players wear suits or sport coats to all team functions, a growing number often dress in casual sportswear.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said he was certain that the new dress code would be complied with.

The new dress code has sparked a fierce debate, with many players and coaches weighing in on the subject.

"I think it should have been done behind closed doors and not made so public," Indiana Pacers' Ron Artest told AllHipHop.com. "Our business should not be for the world to know about."

"The players have been dressing in prison garb the last five or six years,” Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson told the San Gabriel Valley Tribune earlier this week. “All the stuff that goes on, it's like gangster, thuggery stuff. It's time.”

Pacers swingman Stephen Jackson told the Indianapolis Star the dress code was implemented out of racial bias.

“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," Jackson said referring to the ban on excessive jewelry.

To protest the leagues ban on chains worn over clothing, Jackson wore every long, diamond-studded chain in his collection Tuesday night.

Boston Celtics star Paul Pierce agreed with Jackson’s assessment, but said the he would stick to the new dress code.

"When I saw the part about chains, hip hop and throwback jerseys, I think that's part of our culture," Pierce told the Associated Press. “I love my job. I love playing basketball more than I love getting fined and getting suspended."

Despite strong opposition, 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.

The dress code however makes no provisions or requirements for hair, tattoos, earrings or piercing.

Source: www.allhiphop.com

[Lerkot]

If I go to a NBA game I fully expect signs saying "Welcome to Soviet"

[JumpinJack AJ]

I think this is kinda stupid, but i know where they are coming from in some aspect. I hardly ever watch NBA games, but when i do catch them, or see players being interviewed on TV, alot of them play up this cocky, materialistic, playboy image, which discusts me. And wearing headphones at a game is just disrespectful towards the team. It goes both ways i think.

[MaxFly]

If I go to a NBA game I fully expect signs saying "Welcome to Soviet"

How many citizens of the Soviet Union were paid millions of dollars to play ball and represent their teams?

[Hymn Strings]

Sorry, I'm tired of how many of the dudes in the league act and dress. Ever see how A.I. dresses? It's not a big deal if a few of them dress like that, but almost all seem to and they need dozens of tatoos now. Doesn't anyone like to be original anymore? Oh yeah, Stephen Jackson, wearing thick ass chains is not Hip Hop by the way. Way more to Hip Hop than throwback jerseys, Benzes, diamond studs, and plat necklaces you fools!