We have a new rule for dress codes but we don’t have any new rules to help call a fair and consistent game? Stern says the refs will call palming/traveling/etc this year. Suuuure. Don’t they say that every year? By December we’ll be back to the same old NBA refs. The NBA is quickly becoming a joke. Even the most casual fan can turn on a game and see dozens of rule violations in a game. That’s just wrong and it hurts the sport.

There are a lot of serious concerns (ticket prices, fan/player safety, etc) that are being ignored just so some white business men can feel more comfortable when they’re watching the game in their sky box. I just don’t get that at all. Why not embrace the hip hop culture and try to appeal to young people?

Shouldn’t a basketball game be fun? I don’t know anyone who wears suits for fun.

Will the owners of teams be responsible to follow the dress code as well? Because you sir, dress like crap!

Go Lakers!

About Stephen A and the gang on ESPN, you couldn’t have nailed that any better. I’m pretty sure they just have pre-programed bits and they work them into the highlights like how they do announcing in video games.

The dress code issue is just stupid. Granted I think athletes should try to look professional whenever applicable. I don’t think two weeks before the season is the time to start changing the way things are. They’ve had from the middle of June to start implicating these policies. Allthough the truth of the matter is when you see some players wearing chains around their neck that cost the same as my entire college tuition, they have no reason to say they can’t buy a suit. It’s really a slipper slope issue when it comes to those players that don’t have much of a career and need to worry about saving before their career comes to an end due to injury or other causes. The main point being, couldn’t we have had this issue brought up in July not mid-October. David Stern strikes again.

Either way, I love the blog and look forward to the new NBA season. And I wish your team the best of luck this season and Godsend was a very underrated movie. I’m out.

-Brent Strassburg

Also, what happens if these players don’t make it in the NBA and have to go into the business world? Do companies make exceptions on the dress code for their employees because they are too tall?

In short, most of working America has to abide by a company dress code – either a suit or tie, business casual, or even a fast food uniform. As many athletes love to tell us: “Sports is business.” Well, this is how most businessmen and women have to dress.

I always took you for a “glass is half full” kinda guy. Sports is about marketing and todays demograpics show an aging population that probably has a harder time relating to the bulk of the NBA players. While I think it’s a bit much to tell a grown man what to wear, just maybe, Stern/league is trying appeal to the demograpic that has more money, makes more decisions(ad dollars), and is a little alienated from the NBA. NBA players are more associated with thugery because of the whole posse hip-hop thing. While it may not be reality it is perceived. I have no problem with these guys making as much as the market will bear. They’re entertainers, and as such could find their careers over before they planned. Where’s Wierd Al?

Come on Mark, you decked out their locker-room. Swing a deal with a local clothier; have a couple of players do some plugs and I’ll bet your guys will have all the threads they’ll need. Wasn’t it you saying something about preparing them for life outside the NBA.

By the way, Trump’s got nothin’ on you.

Re: $2000 suits–while some here say go to Ross or Men’s Wearhouse, we both know that the average NBA body can’t find anything to fit there. If the league insists on the clothes, they should setup some sort of program with a moderately priced manufacturer to get the suits made. It’s a win-win, if you use the players in the ads. Men’s Wearhouse might be a good place to start, as they have Extra Long sizing in the 42-54 range already.

One thing I haven’t heard much of is that wearing the business clothes may help them in the after-sports life. Although neither you nor I may wear such clothing as entreprenuers, in many situations it’s necessary to fit in.

You’re only right about one part of this. More announcers need to be as well versed in basketball as Hubie. Sorry to say, it ain’t gonna happen, because even you don’t know as much about basketball as the Hube-Man.

As for the rest of the points, you’re so far wrong it’s sad. If The Providential Hand of God had not seen fit to bless you financially, nobody would listen to your idiotic diatribe.

Most of the time, I believe you yak just to hear yourself yak.

Most of the buying public will tell you the image of the NBA is whiny, thug wannabees. Not that they are thugs, they just wanna have people think they are. The NBA is letting the inmates run the asylum.

I’d say not only are your loser-ass Mav’s some of the worst dressed in the league, but you are the biggest idiots out of all the owners for pampering them and promoting to them your whiny, loser-ass ways.

Good riddance to your RSS feed from my reader. You have whined your last off-base, wrong side of the equation, idiotic post to me.