NBA Dress Code

With tickets sales for NBA games waning (lagging) in comparison to years past, increasingly due to the perception of the NBA, the comissioner (president) has taken notice. On Monday, October 18, National Basketball Association (NBA) commissioner David Stern issued that effective the start of the 2005-2006 NBA regular season the players would have to adhere to a dress code. Some of the details of the dress code include: no more sunglasses worn indoors, no more sleeveless shirts, no more headphones during news conferences, no more caps cocked to the side, no more do-rags, no more rumpled sweats, no more chains bearing expensive, gaudy pendants. In a nutshell, business casual dress is now required of every player while on team business. In response, players have cited everything from needing clothing allowances to racism for reasons why they should not have to follow such regulations. For example, Marcus Camby, who makes $8 million a year playing for the Denver Nuggets, says that the burden is "unfair," and "if the NBA wants to impose a dress code it should give each player a clothing allowance." Other players, like Stephen Jackson of the Indiana Pacers and Paul Pierce of the Boston Celtics to name a few, say that the code is racist and aimed at ridding the league of the hip-hop gangsta look that is popular with black men. Pierce is quoted as saying, "...I think that's part of our [black] culture. The NBA is young black males." Indeed the NBA is 75% black, however, consider that the dress code affects white players that like to "dress down" as well. Also, consider that the NBA is first and foremost a business, a very lucrative one that thrives on entertainment and also the perception of its investors. If these investors, a majority of whom are not black, perceive an organization made up of frightening, intimidating men in great physical shape and capable of the acts displayed in the infamous Detroit Pistons and Indiana Pacers game, the business will not thrive. Give me your viewpoint on the new dress code implemented by the NBA. Also look at what some of the players in the NBA thought about the new dress code.