The NBA’s fashion police are at it again.
League officials recently announced plans to place a ban on players using the newly popularized full-leg tights next season.
This announcement occurs after earlier regulations included a league-wide dress code and a length limit for uniform shorts – two attempts by the NBA’s bigwigs to squash the league’s perceived “thug” movement.
But what’s the reasonable explanation for banning tights?
Some claim it’s another tactic to control player’s attire.
But I must second-guess whether league officials actually consider these tights – worn by players such as Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, Vince Carter and Ray Allen – to be a statement or movement of any sort.
As reported earlier by ESPN.com, many players, such as 11-year veteran Jerry Stackhouse, truly use the tights for injury prevention. The tights apparently help keep a player’s legs warm during a game.
The majority admitted injuries were the main reason for wearing the tights, and they certainly didn’t accumulate style points.
“I don’t like how it looks, but I don’t play basketball for the looks,” the Milwaukee Bucks’ Andrew Bogut said in an interview with the Associated Press.
No matter what the league may say, there is not a legitimate reason to ban tights.
It’s simply absurd, and if those in charge believe tights to be some sort of cultural statement, the league has much bigger problems it should be dealing with – such as culturing the ones making these ridiculous restrictions.
After all, who wears tights as a fashion statement?
The NBA should have learned its lesson from the backlash received after instituting the dress code at the start of the season. The code forces all non-uniformed players to dress in a business-like manner.
Understandable? Yes, but that didn’t stop players from voicing disapproval.
Then came the question of the length of player’s shorts. The league deemed the shorts were getting way too long.
Now that is where the line should have been drawn in terms of apparel policing. But itwasn’t, and now we are on to the tights.
The bottom line is, some league officials either have way too much time on their hands or simply have their priorities out of whack if this is truly what they believe is wrong with the NBA.
This is no longer the era of John Stockton, short shorts and clean-cut comb-overs.
Players have tattoos, dreadlocks, shorts past their mid-thighs and all types of alternative styles.
The quicker the league embraces that instead of fighting against it, the better off it’ll be.

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