The Billiken's Bluff

...a dress code. NBA players will be expected to wear business casual attire to any league functions- including pre and post game interviews.

Many players have taken issue with this policy. Stephen Jackson, who was involved the Piston/Pacers melee last November, is calling the league’s policy racist:

"I think it's a racist statement because a lot of the guys who are wearing chains are my age and are black. I wore all my jewelry today to let it be known that I'm upset with it."

Protest. Fight the power.



Bling, bling.



[Note: In this photo it appears that Jackson is actually wearing a big chain with business casual attire. David Stern, is this feasible?]



Allen Iverson, whose fashion stylings almost single-handedly brought corn-row braids into the hip hop main stream, was asked what he thought about the NBA's new policy. [Regrettably, I couldn’t find a transcript of Iverson’s commentary, which I watched on Sportscenter last night, but I think this is fairly accurate]:

I’m 30 years old. I’m a grown man. Nobody should be telling me how to dress. You can put a murderer in a suit, but he will still a murderer.

What exactly is Iverson trying to tell us?



I mean I understand the point Iverson was trying to make, but the way it came out, it sounded as if Iverson was implying that he was a murderer and that suit or no suit he will still be a murderer.

I love how the print news media tries to paraphrase/translate Iverson’s remarks into a more palatable format, rather than quote him directly about these murderers and their suits. For example the Courier Post writes:

Iverson's point is that a good guy can wear jeans, while you can put a suit on a bad guy and he'll still be a bad guy.