Stephen A. Smith might concede that LeBron James is a better basketball player than him, but he won’t admit the four-time NBA MVP is a better dresser.
After the Los Angeles Lakers fell to the Boston Celtics 111-89 Sunday night, LeBron addressed Jaylen Brown’s previous comments about Bronny James. But the most interesting thing to Stephen A. Smith about what LeBron said was what he was wearing.
“I’m walking in like I’m the best dressed dude in the arena,” Smith said of when cameras film him walking from the tunnel to the court of an NBA game. “That’s what I was walking in like! I said the players needed to take notes, and now here we are this year, and I’m still telling the players they need to take notes. All that damn money LeBron and them making, you can’t dress better than that? I’m so happy Pat Riley brought that up.”
The Lakers honored Riley with a statue Sunday night. And during the press conference, Riley said he believes fans still want NBA head coaches to wear suits again. “They want to see someone that looks like a leader,” Riley said. And Smith took it a step further, claiming the players should get back to wearing suits when they’re not in uniform.
“He letting everybody know there should be a dress code, at least for the coaches,” Smith said in support of Riley. “You damn right! All this money y’all make, dressing like y’all shopping at Target or something. They need to get it together. They need to upgrade their wardrobe. Yes, they do.”
NBA fashion has certainly seen a shift from the days of David Stern mandating a strict dress code policy for players in 2005. It was once common for players to wear suits as they walked into the arena for a game or sat on the bench for a DNP. But if players were still wearing suits, we never would have seen Kyle Kuzma in his massive pink sweater. Anyone can wear a suit. But not everyone can wear an oversized Pepto-pink sweater.
If you want to put the coaches back in suits, fine. It’s somewhat surprising that JJ Redick doesn’t opt to wear one anyway. But let the players wear what they want. If they want to wear a suit, great. If they want to wear a big pink sweater, even better. And by the way, what’s wrong with Target?
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com