Dress code for the NBA?

Balancing act
Proposed NBA dress code sends mixed message

We now know, in case there was ever any question, that David Stern isn't exactly down with gangsta chic. Stern, the NBA commissioner, has acknowledged that the league is considering a dress code for the players, one that would require a business casual look at games, practices and all other team functions. Instead of the 'do rags, baseball caps worn sideways and sagging, oversized jeans that some players favor, they would have to show up at the arena or the team plane in jackets, ties and slacks. In other words, when it comes to fashion, Stern would like a little less Allen Iverson and a little more Alan Greenspan.

Stern explains that the league wants its players to present a more professional look, but anyone who's been paying attention to the NBA over the last decade or so knows what the real message to the players is: Stop dressing like thugs -- or at least, stop wearing what a significant portion of the public perceives as thug attire. Call the style what you will -- urban, ethnic, hip-hop, ghetto -- the league has apparently decided that the look is bad for business, that there's a big chunk of the potential ticket and merchandise-buying fan base that has a hard time warming up to players who look like they just stepped out of a 50 Cent video.

This is dangerous territory, and Stern knows he needs to step lightly. Forget for a moment whether the league has any business telling grown men how to dress when they're not in uniform. The unspoken issue here is race. Young black men -- and that's who we're talking about here, with a few exceptions, like Jason Williams of the Miami Heat -- sometimes dress in ways that make people who don't belong to that demographic uncomfortable. If you think the league isn't targeting any one particular style of dress, ask yourself whether Stern or anyone else would be pushing for a dress code if the predominant look for players out of uniform was a polo shirt and khakis, a la John Stockton.

The league has been dancing along this treacherous line for years. It wants to be all things to all people -- edgy and rebellious to younger fans, but not so extreme that it's threatening to their parents. That's why it sends such mixed messages -- pounding rap and hip-hop beats play on the arena sound systems, but the players aren't supposed to look too much like the artists who create that music.

The players will tell you it's not their problem if people don't like their fashion choices. The NBA is saying, yes, it is. Though the party line out of the league office is that the game's popularity is as high as ever, Stern and his lieutenants know that television ratings have declined, that the league isn't as hot as it once was. There are any number of reasons for this, of course, but it doesn't take a marketing expert to figure out that one of them is that older, more conservative fans aren't as likely to spend their time and money on players dressed like people they might cross the street to avoid under different circumstances.

But if league officials are so concerned with image, they would be better off focusing on behavior instead of appearance. This is the same league that downplayed the significance of its players fathering children out of wedlock at alarming rates, for example. It is a league whose public perception has been soured by the small segment of its players who get involved in drug scrapes, sexual misconduct or dustups outside strip clubs. If the league office wants to avoid alienating fans, there are several problems that need attention more than what Iverson is wearing when he walks through hotel lobbies.

Sure, the league has a right to be concerned with the image its players present to the public, but a man's clothes are not necessarily a reflection of his character. Maybe the NBA ought to trust its fans to realize that.