Charge of racism over new dress code is silly
All the buzz on sports talk radio is over the NBA’s new dress code and whether it's a sign of racism on the part of the league, which wants players to shed do-rags and down-to-your-knees baggy pants for suits and collared shirts.
It’s understandable for players, most of them under age 25, to whine, but it’s silly that this has become a topic of serious debate in the mainstream media. It speaks less to the issue of racism and far more to the lack of intelligent conversation on the sports chat shows.
The NBA has made a business decision, and it's a smart one, having nothing to do with race. The league quite rightly aspires to clean up its image after several years that have brought us the long saga of Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant’s rape accusation and last year’s Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers brawl. The league could use a good scrubbing, and a dress code is a place to begin, as minor as it may seem.
The NBA is first an entertainment enterprise, and that means competing with other forms of entertainment to provide a good product. The product is not just the play, the actual basketball game, but the players, on the court and off. How they behave does matter, and so too does their appearance. Hence the outlawing of T-shirts, headgear, chains, medallions and sunglasses, among other things, at team or league functions.
Critics claim this is a direct swipe at the NBA’s young black players, a move to suppress their culture and their individuality. The truth is that the league is moving to protect its brand, and a lot of that brand is about the role professional athletes play in the lives of America's young.
The tragedies of American sports, the biggest disappointments, are the players who violate their bond with the parents and children who followed them, cheered them, cursed them, but still always wanted to believe in them. Baseball's Pete Rose is just one name that comes to mind.
In reality, the only rightful criticism of the NBA is that it waited too long. The league has never done as good a job reaching out to the fans as the NFL and Major League Baseball, both of which publicize their community and charity outreach quite effectively.
The league has suffered accordingly, with a fickle public that tunes in or attends when there are true stars on the court but falls away when they leave the game. Professional basketball lacks the deep love of the sport that baseball enjoys, even for its problems, keeping fans coming back during down times.
The NBA's dress code presents a rare chance for the league to tackle a problem, its sloppy presentation, and actually follow through on it.
Granted, there are much bigger problems facing sports today, such as baseball’s steroid scandal, increasing crime rates among athletes, and the lack of minority coaches. But in an era when players’ paychecks get bigger and bigger, it’s nice to see them being held accountable for something.
Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson protested to the Philadelphia Daily News: “It sends a bad message to kids. If you don't have a suit on when you go to school, is the teacher going to think you're a bad kid?”
That’s baloney. Nearly every workplace in the country has some form of dress code, and the standards get tougher the more money one makes. If these players wore T-shirts or baggy pants to any other job paying anywhere close to what they make, they’d be fired.
Maybe if the NBA began firing players it would regain some of the public's respect.
Meanwhile, in sports ratings for the week ended Oct. 16, CBS’s Sunday NFL coverage edged Fox’s football games by 0.5 household rating points for the No. 1 slot among sporting events with an 11.0 average.
Fox, with baseball and football coverage, had six of the week’s top 10 events.
NBC’s Notre Dame-USC game averaged a 6.7 household rating, placing first among college football telecasts.
The top-rated sporting event on cable for the week ended Oct. 9 was ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Bengals and Jaguars, which averaged a 5.5 household rating. The Oct. 7 Yankees-Angels Divisional Series playoff game on ESPN placed second with a 4.9.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_834.asp
All the buzz on sports talk radio is over the NBA’s new dress code and whether it's a sign of racism on the part of the league, which wants players to shed do-rags and down-to-your-knees baggy pants for suits and collared shirts.
It’s understandable for players, most of them under age 25, to whine, but it’s silly that this has become a topic of serious debate in the mainstream media. It speaks less to the issue of racism and far more to the lack of intelligent conversation on the sports chat shows.
The NBA has made a business decision, and it's a smart one, having nothing to do with race. The league quite rightly aspires to clean up its image after several years that have brought us the long saga of Los Angeles Laker Kobe Bryant’s rape accusation and last year’s Detroit Pistons-Indiana Pacers brawl. The league could use a good scrubbing, and a dress code is a place to begin, as minor as it may seem.
The NBA is first an entertainment enterprise, and that means competing with other forms of entertainment to provide a good product. The product is not just the play, the actual basketball game, but the players, on the court and off. How they behave does matter, and so too does their appearance. Hence the outlawing of T-shirts, headgear, chains, medallions and sunglasses, among other things, at team or league functions.
Critics claim this is a direct swipe at the NBA’s young black players, a move to suppress their culture and their individuality. The truth is that the league is moving to protect its brand, and a lot of that brand is about the role professional athletes play in the lives of America's young.
The tragedies of American sports, the biggest disappointments, are the players who violate their bond with the parents and children who followed them, cheered them, cursed them, but still always wanted to believe in them. Baseball's Pete Rose is just one name that comes to mind.
In reality, the only rightful criticism of the NBA is that it waited too long. The league has never done as good a job reaching out to the fans as the NFL and Major League Baseball, both of which publicize their community and charity outreach quite effectively.
The league has suffered accordingly, with a fickle public that tunes in or attends when there are true stars on the court but falls away when they leave the game. Professional basketball lacks the deep love of the sport that baseball enjoys, even for its problems, keeping fans coming back during down times.
The NBA's dress code presents a rare chance for the league to tackle a problem, its sloppy presentation, and actually follow through on it.
Granted, there are much bigger problems facing sports today, such as baseball’s steroid scandal, increasing crime rates among athletes, and the lack of minority coaches. But in an era when players’ paychecks get bigger and bigger, it’s nice to see them being held accountable for something.
Philadelphia 76ers guard Allen Iverson protested to the Philadelphia Daily News: “It sends a bad message to kids. If you don't have a suit on when you go to school, is the teacher going to think you're a bad kid?”
That’s baloney. Nearly every workplace in the country has some form of dress code, and the standards get tougher the more money one makes. If these players wore T-shirts or baggy pants to any other job paying anywhere close to what they make, they’d be fired.
Maybe if the NBA began firing players it would regain some of the public's respect.
Meanwhile, in sports ratings for the week ended Oct. 16, CBS’s Sunday NFL coverage edged Fox’s football games by 0.5 household rating points for the No. 1 slot among sporting events with an 11.0 average.
Fox, with baseball and football coverage, had six of the week’s top 10 events.
NBC’s Notre Dame-USC game averaged a 6.7 household rating, placing first among college football telecasts.
The top-rated sporting event on cable for the week ended Oct. 9 was ESPN’s “Sunday Night Football” game between the Bengals and Jaguars, which averaged a 5.5 household rating. The Oct. 7 Yankees-Angels Divisional Series playoff game on ESPN placed second with a 4.9.
http://medialifemagazine.com/artman/publish/article_834.asp
