....continued
Apparently, the league is OK with stepping back and allowing
Eddy Curry to gamble with his life as long as he passes a few physical tests, simply because it's his prerogative to do so and New York's to employ him. But he had better hit the Big & Tall shop and get some new threads if he's planning on hanging around.
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Although the dress code has not been finalized or instituted, Iverson already has decided he'll go the insubordinate route in response, choosing fines over conforming. But what happens if repeated offenses merit suspension?
All of a sudden, taking a stand starts interfering with the on-court product, the driving force of the league in the first place. It puts Iverson in the pickle of weighing his responsibility to his teammates vs. standing by his beliefs.
"When I think I'm right, I stick with it," Iverson said. "I really want people to know that I do have a problem with it. It's not fair. Just because you put a guy in a tuxedo doesn't mean he's a good guy."
Undoubtedly, there will be others who cling to the belief, Stern one of them, that unless you're signing your own paychecks, you do as you're told. Period. It's rare that anyone can go into their employer's office and say, "I'm not doing what you're asking" without being shown the door.
"(The dress code) is a small thing that contributes to a sense of professionalism. ... We've always moved to the fashion of our players," Stern said. "Years ago, the fashion was a jacket and tie. Now, it's a much more casual approach. But our referees are always attired a certain way based upon their job description when they come into the building. Our coaches are attired a certain way when they come on the court. We decided that it was time (for the players)."
Stern has done wonders for basketball. He has globalized it, helped institute salary clauses that have made the league relatively balanced, and has ultimately made it one of the country's most-watched sports.
But in trying to tighten the reins on the direction of the game over the past few months, there have certainly been policies that have raised eyebrows. The age limit, on the week Michelle Wie turns pro before 16 and Sidney Crosby logs his first action at 18, immediately comes to mind.
Now come rumblings of a dress code. What's next? Mandatory curfews? Organized marriages?
"If you don't like this business, you can always go work somewhere else,"
Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan told the
Deseret News. "We've got to try to sell this league any way we can, if it's a positive."
Not everyone thinks it's a positive, though. Frankly, it's an issue that has no bearing on what the sport is fundamentally about -- the basketball.
Instead, you've got guys debating what's acceptable as dressy-casual attire and what's not.
"It's totally unfair for some of these young guys who come in here on a partial deal to have to go out and spend money on (specific) clothes," Memphis'
Eddie Jones told the Memphis
Commercial Appeal. "A lot of guys need custom clothes, and that takes more than a couple of dollars. What's wrong with a kid wearing a pair of nice jeans -- no holes and not baggy -- a pair of nice shoes and a button-up shirt? What's wrong with that?"
Meanwhile, players union president
Antonio Davis was telling
USA Today, "you can't say no jeans. I've seen businessmen in jeans, a sports coat and nice shirt, and you say that's classy."
Do you care what Davis thinks is classy? Whether
Damon Jones sports sunglasses at a press conference because he's a likeable clown? Does it honestly make you squeamish to see Iverson and
Jermaine O'Neal popularize the do-rag? Ostertag a giant belt buckle?
How about we just let them play ball, rather than making the lot of them resort to the spirit of the '60s and '70s. Looks like million-dollar athletes actually can be repressed. Who knew? Iverson, Ostertag -- organize a sit-in. Fight the power.
it had some player quotes which i dont believe the original article had.
