http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12173060p-13043131c.html
Fans hold court on skullcaps, NBA's culture clash
By Jon Ortiz -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 29, 2005
Two worlds collided when Cuttino Mobley wore a Kings logo skullcap for a recent TV interview: the world of older fans who can afford the average $45.28 NBA ticket and the hip-hop world embraced by many players and young fans.
The National Basketball Association this week warned Mobley about unintentionally violating a league ban on hats during TV interviews. The 29-year-old Kings guard has continued to wear a knitted skullcap for interviews, saying, "I'm a man of suits and ties, and you're worried about me wearing an NBA-logo hat?"
The league could take further action, but it's at a crucial crossroads, sports marketing experts say. The NBA's global reach has created a fan base that scrutinizes its every move from varying cultural perspectives and comes to different conclusions. Every decision could alienate some fans.
For example, 19-year-old Keenan Coleman, a student at Sacramento City College, said Mobley should be allowed to express his own style.
"They try to classify people who wear hats as gang members, but they're trying to read too much into it," said Coleman, who was wearing a black nylon cap Friday and diamond-studded gold caps on his teeth. "It's just like hip-hop; it's the fashion."
Rancho Cordova resident William Archer, 49, has a different take.
Mobley "is an employee. The employer has the right to set a dress code. That's it," the self-described Kings fanatic said. "I have to wear a uniform. He just can't wear a cap. What's the big deal?"
NBA officials said that the October hat ban ensures players' faces can be seen, crucial for a league that has built popularity by marketing individual players such as Michael Jordan, Sha quille O'Neal and LeBron James.
The league does not have specific bans on other apparel. The Kings tell players to "dress fully and appropriately" during road games and public appearances.
The NBA is at a marketing juncture caused by a generational split over culture, said USC professor Todd Boyd, author of "Young, Black, Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion and the Transformation of American Culture."
"Older fans and sportswriters feel disenfranchised," Boyd said Friday. "The game has changed, and they feel like they don't fit."
Older fans help fuel an estimated $265 million in annual luxury box sales, according to the United States Sports Academy. The league's average overall revenue was $207 million per team in 2002, up 15 percent from the year before, Forbes reported.
Part of the reason for the generation gap is hip-hop, Boyd said, a lifestyle criticized for music that some say glorifies violence, promiscuity and drugs.
Some hip-hop fashions - such as baggy pants and shirts and skullcaps - have their genesis in prison uniforms, hand-me-downs or clothes worn to shoplift. But today, youths - and many adults - have adopted these styles across America.
"There's a cultural ambivalence about hip-hop," said professor Susan Kaiser, chairwoman of textiles and clothing at UC Davis. "Its edge and coolness make it something that white kids from the suburbs emulate. On the other hand, there's a moral panic among parents about going too far down the road with gang and prison imagery. It's complicated because people misread the style and make a big deal out of things that don't mean anything."
Hip-hop music and the clothing associated with it crossed over into popular culture in the early 1990s, led by New York City entrepreneur Russell Simmons and his Def Jam Records music label. By 2003, hip-hop accounted for 13 percent of the $11.9 billion in CDs and downloads sold in the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America said.
"I think Mobley should warn the league," said Kevin Miles, a Sacramento entrepreneur who worked for Simmons in the early '90s on Coca-Cola ads with hip-hop themes. "They're trying to keep black athletes from expressing their culture."
When NBA players embraced hip-hop music and clothing, the league tightened its public-appearance rules, Boyd said. "There's a history of the league policing the look of its players over the last eight or nine years," he said.
In 2001, the league fined nine players $5,000 each for wearing game shorts below the knee, a style informed by hip-hop's saggy, baggy chic.
The NBA also airbrushed tattoos from a cover photo of Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson on Hoop Magazine, a league publication.
And streetwise trash talking, once a specialty of the league's biggest star, Michael Jordan, can get today's players thrown out of a game.
But even as the league distances itself from hip-hop, it uses the culture to sell itself, said Robert Tuchman of TSE Sports & Entertainment, a New York sports marketing firm. He said the NBA uses hip-hop music and its stars at league events and in its advertising. It also promotes individual players, such as Iverson and O'Neal, who produce their own hip-hop CDs.
"Everything is about marketing in the NBA," Tuchman said. "Hip-hop is definitely part of the NBA culture. It's a sexy image that sells to young adults and helps make players celebrities. But the league also has a family product, so they have to toe the line. It's a difficult balancing act."
So when the league admonishes Mobley for wearing a skullcap - one with a Kings logo and NBA insignia - 13-year-old Eugene Buffington has trouble understanding the issue.
"That ain't cool because he was just wearing a beanie," said Buffington as he walked home Friday from school in Sacramento. "What's wrong with wearing a beanie?"
The California Middle School student said he takes fashion cues from magazines, clothing ads - and NBA stars such as the Kings' Mike Bibby, whose ensemble includes the jersey, shorts and matching white-and-purple headband.
The NBA will have to be more careful with its messages in the future, Tuchman said.
"You're catering to a lot of demographics when you talk about the NBA's global fan base," he said. "It's a smart organization, and they know that they'll have to cater to everyone to be successful. Besides, these things blow over. A hat company would be a perfect fit for Mobley right now. He'll probably get an endorsement deal. You watch."
The Bee's Jon Ortiz can be reached at (916) 321-1043 or jortiz@sacbee.com. Bee staff writers Sam Amick, Will Evans and Laurel Rosen contributed to this report.
Fans hold court on skullcaps, NBA's culture clash
By Jon Ortiz -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PST Saturday, January 29, 2005
Two worlds collided when Cuttino Mobley wore a Kings logo skullcap for a recent TV interview: the world of older fans who can afford the average $45.28 NBA ticket and the hip-hop world embraced by many players and young fans.
The National Basketball Association this week warned Mobley about unintentionally violating a league ban on hats during TV interviews. The 29-year-old Kings guard has continued to wear a knitted skullcap for interviews, saying, "I'm a man of suits and ties, and you're worried about me wearing an NBA-logo hat?"
The league could take further action, but it's at a crucial crossroads, sports marketing experts say. The NBA's global reach has created a fan base that scrutinizes its every move from varying cultural perspectives and comes to different conclusions. Every decision could alienate some fans.
For example, 19-year-old Keenan Coleman, a student at Sacramento City College, said Mobley should be allowed to express his own style.
"They try to classify people who wear hats as gang members, but they're trying to read too much into it," said Coleman, who was wearing a black nylon cap Friday and diamond-studded gold caps on his teeth. "It's just like hip-hop; it's the fashion."
Rancho Cordova resident William Archer, 49, has a different take.
Mobley "is an employee. The employer has the right to set a dress code. That's it," the self-described Kings fanatic said. "I have to wear a uniform. He just can't wear a cap. What's the big deal?"
NBA officials said that the October hat ban ensures players' faces can be seen, crucial for a league that has built popularity by marketing individual players such as Michael Jordan, Sha quille O'Neal and LeBron James.
The league does not have specific bans on other apparel. The Kings tell players to "dress fully and appropriately" during road games and public appearances.
The NBA is at a marketing juncture caused by a generational split over culture, said USC professor Todd Boyd, author of "Young, Black, Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion and the Transformation of American Culture."
"Older fans and sportswriters feel disenfranchised," Boyd said Friday. "The game has changed, and they feel like they don't fit."
Older fans help fuel an estimated $265 million in annual luxury box sales, according to the United States Sports Academy. The league's average overall revenue was $207 million per team in 2002, up 15 percent from the year before, Forbes reported.
Part of the reason for the generation gap is hip-hop, Boyd said, a lifestyle criticized for music that some say glorifies violence, promiscuity and drugs.
Some hip-hop fashions - such as baggy pants and shirts and skullcaps - have their genesis in prison uniforms, hand-me-downs or clothes worn to shoplift. But today, youths - and many adults - have adopted these styles across America.
"There's a cultural ambivalence about hip-hop," said professor Susan Kaiser, chairwoman of textiles and clothing at UC Davis. "Its edge and coolness make it something that white kids from the suburbs emulate. On the other hand, there's a moral panic among parents about going too far down the road with gang and prison imagery. It's complicated because people misread the style and make a big deal out of things that don't mean anything."
Hip-hop music and the clothing associated with it crossed over into popular culture in the early 1990s, led by New York City entrepreneur Russell Simmons and his Def Jam Records music label. By 2003, hip-hop accounted for 13 percent of the $11.9 billion in CDs and downloads sold in the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America said.
"I think Mobley should warn the league," said Kevin Miles, a Sacramento entrepreneur who worked for Simmons in the early '90s on Coca-Cola ads with hip-hop themes. "They're trying to keep black athletes from expressing their culture."
When NBA players embraced hip-hop music and clothing, the league tightened its public-appearance rules, Boyd said. "There's a history of the league policing the look of its players over the last eight or nine years," he said.
In 2001, the league fined nine players $5,000 each for wearing game shorts below the knee, a style informed by hip-hop's saggy, baggy chic.
The NBA also airbrushed tattoos from a cover photo of Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson on Hoop Magazine, a league publication.
And streetwise trash talking, once a specialty of the league's biggest star, Michael Jordan, can get today's players thrown out of a game.
But even as the league distances itself from hip-hop, it uses the culture to sell itself, said Robert Tuchman of TSE Sports & Entertainment, a New York sports marketing firm. He said the NBA uses hip-hop music and its stars at league events and in its advertising. It also promotes individual players, such as Iverson and O'Neal, who produce their own hip-hop CDs.
"Everything is about marketing in the NBA," Tuchman said. "Hip-hop is definitely part of the NBA culture. It's a sexy image that sells to young adults and helps make players celebrities. But the league also has a family product, so they have to toe the line. It's a difficult balancing act."
So when the league admonishes Mobley for wearing a skullcap - one with a Kings logo and NBA insignia - 13-year-old Eugene Buffington has trouble understanding the issue.
"That ain't cool because he was just wearing a beanie," said Buffington as he walked home Friday from school in Sacramento. "What's wrong with wearing a beanie?"
The California Middle School student said he takes fashion cues from magazines, clothing ads - and NBA stars such as the Kings' Mike Bibby, whose ensemble includes the jersey, shorts and matching white-and-purple headband.
The NBA will have to be more careful with its messages in the future, Tuchman said.
"You're catering to a lot of demographics when you talk about the NBA's global fan base," he said. "It's a smart organization, and they know that they'll have to cater to everyone to be successful. Besides, these things blow over. A hat company would be a perfect fit for Mobley right now. He'll probably get an endorsement deal. You watch."
The Bee's Jon Ortiz can be reached at (916) 321-1043 or jortiz@sacbee.com. Bee staff writers Sam Amick, Will Evans and Laurel Rosen contributed to this report.
