Greg Buckner has a passion for four-button jackets, Louis Vuitton shoes and French-cuff shirts. His teammates on the Denver Nuggets nicknamed him Fabio, a compliment to the 6-foot-4-inch guard who wears custom suits to games and charity events.
“My personality is that I’m a confident guy and not the kind of person to be running around and looking like a bum,” says Buckner, 29. “As an athlete, kids look up to you, and I think you should look professional.”
So does his league. And slowly, but surely, it is having its way with players. With a little pressure, the game of hoops is looking sharper.
Once filled with guys who took their haberdashery nearly as seriously as their hook shots, the NBA has sidelined style in the past few years. Guys like bespoke-suited Michael Jordan and flashy Walt Frazier have been replaced by players right out of high school who prefer hip-hop style to coats and ties. Travel by charter planes and the increasingly casual nature of American society are some of the other reasons wardrobes went out of bounds.
And there’s a business angle: The league is now populated by young, rich players with their own ideas of fashion – and their own brands to promote.
“It had gotten out of hand,” says Cary Mitchell, a Charlotte, N.C., custom clothier who outfits many pro athletes. “There were players who had no fashion etiquette. They were thrust into a man’s world, but didn’t have the social skills.”
So who really cares how players dress anyway? The stands are filled with fans in tracksuits, and players do their jobs in shorts and sleeveless tops, not three-piece suits.
NBA brass, that’s who, and its members are trying to protect the brand.
“What a guy wears on the bench or before and after the game is not only looked at by the kids, but by a tremendous number of people, including corporate sponsors,” says Tony Agnone, an agent who negotiates contracts for professional athletes and broadcasters at Baltimore-based Eastern Athletic Services.
Order on the court
People also pay attention when players and fans get into a brawl, like the one last year at a Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers game, and when players like Kobe Bryant are accused of sexual assault.
In an effort to make over its image, NBA commissioner David Stern unveiled a “business casual” dress code for players as the new season began last month. Banned items include throwback jerseys, baseball caps, sunglasses and chains. Ditto for shorts, sleeveless shirts and headphones. When sitting on the bench during a game and not playing, team members have to wear a sport coat and dress shoes in addition to their shirt and trousers.
Some players balked. Stephen Jackson of the Pacers was quoted as saying the code ends up “attacking young black males.” But most are conforming, even Jackson who said he would go along with it because “I love my job.”
The dress code “targets hip-hop culture rather than black culture,” says Todd Boyd, professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California and author of “Young, Black, Rich and Famous,” a 2003 book about the NBA and hip-hop.
“Like Hollywood, TV and the fashion industry, the NBA has benefited from its connection to hip-hop,” Boyd says. “But the league wants to have it both ways. They want the heat, but they want to control the image.
“It’s a power move, an ongoing battle of control. The NBA is a brand, and (Stern) is interested in forwarding a certain image in conjunction with that brand. For the players, the issue is freedom of expression.”
And that clothes don’t necessarily make the man.
“You wear a suit, you still could be a crook,” Golden State Warriors guard Jason Richardson told The Associated Press. “You see all what happened with Enron and Martha Stewart. Just because you dress a certain way doesn’t mean you’re that way.”
Yet some players recall having a dress code from an early age.
“I had a fourth-grade coach who made us wear ties to the game, and at the time I had two ties, two shirts and two pairs of pants that I rotated,” says Michael Finley of the San Antonio Spurs. “He said that he wanted us to look like we are about business – that was his word.”
Dressing up, their way
Finley was one of Greg Buckner’s mentors when he came into the league seven years ago. “Guys like Finley and Robert Pack showed me the ropes, but I’ve always liked nice clothes,” Buckner says.
Buckner says he hasn’t done as much mentoring of new players because they haven’t been interested until now. But players are being forced to dress up and find their own style along the way.
Rookies have made the biggest adjustment, trading jeans and jerseys for clothes more typically identified with banking than basketball.
Julius Hodge, a first-year player with the Nuggets, says he prefers sweats and T-shirts to suits. His favorite label is Rocawear. Still, the shooting guard says he likes to look “grown and sexy” when he’s on a dinner date, and didn’t mind having to order a couple of sport coats to get in compliance with the code.
Another Nuggets rookie, Linas
Kleiza, was in the same spot. “I definitely like to dress casually, but I realize this is a job. It’s necessary,” says the 6-foot-8-inch forward. He says he doesn’t favor one designer over another, but loves shoes and admits to having fun during a recent shopping trip on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, Calif. “It’s nice to be able to afford shopping at places like that.”
Pinstripes and pleats will never be Carmelo Anthony’s style. The forward, in his third year with the Nuggets, has his own activewear line with Team Jordan and recently introduced his second shoe style, the Melo 5.5. Let’s just say it’s not a wingtip. And Anthony’s favorite jacket has a hood and zip-front rather than peak lapels and besom pockets.
“I don’t think you have to wear a suit” to look well-dressed, Anthony, 21, says. “You can wear a cool sweater or nice jacket and jeans.
“I think a lot of people thought I wouldn’t abide by the rules, but when it’s time to put nice clothes on, I can,” he says. “It just surprises people because they’ve never seen me dress up.” And he doesn’t admit to taking any pointers from his stylish fiancée, LaLa Vasquez. “She knows that I’ve got some taste,” he says.
To ensure Nuggets team members have no excuse to evade the dress code and perhaps to answer Marcus Camby’s suggestion that the NBA give players a clothing allowance, general manager and former player Kiki Vandeweghe bought new garb for each player. Denver custom wardrober André Holliday took measurements for jackets, while shirts were ordered from upscale menswear retailer Andrisen Morton.
“We want to support the NBA dress code and show we’re onboard with it,” Vandeweghe says. “Players are in the public eye and representing our team and our community. We want to look professional and be good examples. The players have embraced that.”
Both he and Doug Moe, an assistant coach, admit to making wardrobe upgrades of their own this season.
“I figure if I don’t mind doing it, nobody should,” Moe says. “No one’s a worse dresser than me.”
Clothiers like Holliday, who has done suits for NBA players such as Chauncy Billups and Antonio McDyess, predict competition between the players as they get used to dressing up.
“The tie surge hasn’t hit yet this year. I expect to see it around the holidays,” Holliday says. “The other guys start to take notice, and the last thing you want is a rookie showing you up. Buckner will set the standard.”
Staff writer Suzanne S. Brown can be reached at 303-820-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com. Staff writer Marc J. Spears contributed to this report.
