NBA to Enforce Stricter Dress Code

[MavKikiNYC]

I like the uniform rule, but the enforcement sounds a little wack.

Also, has anyone else noticed the weird enforcement of technical fouls for hanging on the rim this season? I've seen it called in each of the last two games I've gone to, where players are dunking in traffic, grasp the rim to keep from coming down off balance and end up with a T for their trouble.

There was another article posted a few days ago (can't find it at the moment) that talked about how NBA referees were also quicker with the T this year for arguing calls from the bench.

I'm all about law and order on the court, but some of this sounds close to going beyond what's necessary.


Coming up shorts
NBA's ridiculous uniform rule is . . .

Stephon Marbury (l.) and Nate Robinson are among players who have been fined by NBA for wearing shorts that are too long.

NBA players are steaming over the league's strict enforcement of the one-inch shorts rule, and they have unusual allies: Their own teams, who are just as upset over the fact that they're forking over thousands of dollars in fine money for something that isn't their fault. Six players, including the Knicks' Stephon Marbury and Nate Robinson, have already been fined $10,000 apiece for wearing shorts that exceed the allowable length. This week, they are supposed to join four Sixers, including Allen Iverson and team rep Kevin Ollie, in filing a grievance, seeking to overturn the fines.

Team executives and players have no idea who is making the inspections - is it league personnel sitting in the stands, refs, Spike Lee? - but several teams this past week received notifications that they are going to be fined $20,000 per infraction.
First a little background to shorts-gate: The 400 players don't dress themselves. They wear uniforms provided by Reebok, official supplier for the NBA. The league is standing firm behind its rule that pants can't come down lower than one inch above the knee.

"That's why I've got some players rolling up their waist-bands, to make themselves legal," said Detroit president Joe Dumars. "We were just warned about it. But I don't think it looks very good when guys are playing with their waistbands turned inside-out."

This is the same league that imposed a new dress code on its players this season to help improve its image. David Stern wants players to dress like professionals off the floor, in coats and ties. But on it, he has what looks like a church-league game, with several players running around with their waist-bands showing. How's that for some warped logic?

Teams are getting in a nasty mood over the enforcement of the rule. While players get $10,000 fines for every infraction, they aren't supposed to be docked until the fourth step of the process. First, teams are warned about potential violations in a letter. Then the team is subject to two fines - $20,000 per infraction, per player - before the player is finally penalized.
In the Sixers' case, players were notified of their fines before the team received its warning.

"It's ridiculous and it's absurd," said one Eastern Conference GM whose team received a warning letter this past week. "For one thing, we don't make the uniforms. Reebok makes them. So they should have our players measured before the season and outfitted correctly. Aren't we a professional league? Isn't this the NBA? It's an embarrassment. The league is out of control on this."

The league talked to the NBA Players Association over the last few days about possibly altering, for lack of a better word, its penalties. The league knows it will look preposterous if it begins taking money from players who are merely wearing uniforms that are team-issued. And it will look equally stupid to fine teams who merely are entrusted with handing out the uniforms. The league's decision to call a halt to the madness while Reebok delivers the correct shorts would stop the players' plans to go to an arbitrator to have the fines wiped out. As of now, though, it doesn't seem as if the league is in a mood to bargain.

"The biggest thing is that Reebok has to step forward and take some responsibility for supplying us with uniforms that don't conform to the rules,'' said the Knicks' Antonio Davis, the president of the NBA Players Association. "Reebok needs to answer why they've been giving us shorts that are not within the rules. Because of that, we don't think the fines are warranted.''

Added a league spokesman:"It's the team's responsibility to ensure that their players are properly attired during NBA games."

Here's the irony. The NBA has been actively courting the hip-hop culture the past few years, sometimes to nauseating degrees. Long shorts are part of the culture and zillions are sold bearing the NBA logo and team colors. So now their own players can't wear them? That's rich.

On a positive note, though, this could be another sign that the league wants to distance itself from hip hop. It officially started when Stern cracked down on players by banning do-rags, chains and other oversized jewelry.

Maybe as players head to the tailors to pick up their new sports coats and suits, they can bring their pants and have them shortened, too.

Larry who?
It hasn't taken Flip Saunders long to give the Pistons exactly what they were looking for. Hired to redesign an offense that was famous for going long stretches without scoring, Saunders has been at his creative best, spreading the court, running fewer sets than Larry Brown and giving his players more freedom than they've ever had to go one-on-one.
In their first dozen games, the Pistons hardly looked like the same team that died in Game 7 in San Antonio when they mustered all of 35 points over the final 24 minutes.

"We're still built on defense and we're going to play defense no matter what," said Tayshaun Prince. "But Flip told us that when he watched films of us over the last couple of years, he noticed that we weren't aggressive. His plays are more open than Larry's. They flow better and anybody can score."

The results have been startling. Last season, the Pistons didn't reach 100 points for the seventh time until their 32nd game, on Jan. 7. This season, they did it by game No. 11, on Nov. 25.

"Here's the thing, you have to be able to look at your team objectively and honestly," said Dumars. "And the weakest part of our team, over the last couple of years, was offensively we were having too many lulls. Flip's main strength has been to open up the offense."