NBA Season Tips Off Amid Heightened Focus On League Image
The NBA regular season tips off tonight with a national doubleheader on TNT featuring Nuggets-Spurs at 8:00pm ET and Mavericks-Suns at 10:30pm (THE DAILY).
CODE BREAKER: In DC, Michael Wilbon writes the NBA “needs more than a dress code to make things better. The league could use a great team full of colorful characters with a crazy coach. It could use a rivalry in metropolitan New York between the talented Nets and the finally relevant Knicks.” It also needs Lakers G Kobe Bryant and T’Wolves F Kevin Garnett “to be in playoff contention,” Heat C Shaquille O’Neal “to be healthy, more teams scoring 110 points a game,” and “stars to bubble up in a hurry” (WASHINGTON POST, 11/1).
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Marbury Outfitting Teammates
In Joseph Abboud Suits |
BUILDING CODE: Knicks G Stephon Marbury, “in an effort to comply” with the dress code, will outfit each teammate in a Joseph Abboud custom-designed suit (MIAMI HERALD, 10/30). Marbury endorses the designer and appeared in an ad campaign for the line last spring (THE DAILY). In Hartford, Jeff Goldberg wrote Abboud “sees the dress code as a fashion opportunity, not a restriction,” and noted “some of the most successful players in NBA history — Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Isiah Thomas — set a high fashion standard.” Abboud: “It really separates the players we’ll forget from the superstars” (HARTFORD COURANT, 10/31). Dallas-based Lamonte Fashions Owner Lamonte Moore “is offering any player the opportunity to start a clothing line” in response to the dress code. Moore: “If they jump on board with me, I’m going to make sure they get a successful clothing line, a good budget and some good quality clothes” (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 10/30).
ZIP CODE: The dress code was discussed on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” on Sunday, and NBA Development League VP/Player Development Michael Curry said, “It’s not attacking hip-hop. It’s the business of professional basketball ... and the dress code was just a small portion of the changes that we’ve implemented to hopefully help guys have a long career, help them benefit and reap the benefits of a successful game.” But USC professor Todd Boyd said NBA Commissioner David Stern “is obviously targeting” the hip-hop culture, which “emerges out of African-American culture.” Boyd: “That dress code is very much targeted at a hip-hop aesthetic that’s become quite relevant and visible in the NBA over the last few years, and I think Stern is challenging that and wants to nuance that even though hip-hop has done a great deal for basketball. ... He is trying to have it both ways” (“OTL,” ESPN, 10/30).
AREA CODE: In Boston, Peter May notes that Stern’s “image-enhancing drive ... is not exactly new.” The Trail Blazers instituted a code of conduct over two years ago, and the Celtics announced a conduct code last spring. Also, when Bobcats Owner Bob Johnson purchased the franchise in ’03, he said that he “would use character as a basis for signing players” (BOSTON GLOBE, 11/1).
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