"Young black kids dress like NBA players," he said. "Unfortunately, they don't get paid like NBA players. So when they go out in the real world, what they wear is held against them.
"See, these players make $10 million to $15 million a year, so nobody cares how they dress. But regular black kids go out into the real world and how they dress is held against them.
"If a well-dressed white kid and a black kid wearing a do-rag and throwback jersey came to me in a job interview, I'd hire the white kid," he said. "That's reality. That's the No. 1 reason I support the dress code.
A very good point. Strange that David Stern didn't mention it...
*For the non-Carleton kids, there's a good story which I'm not really comfortable putting into print on a quasi-public forum
2 comments:
My girlfriend and I were just debating this. She is against it because of the overt racism behind the decision. Admirable, but I feel that addressing our societies problems is not what the NBA is about. It's a business, and Crap-master Stern decided (hopefully with some supporting evidence) that a dress-code would improve the economics of the league. Harsh reality, but that is what he is there to do. All I'm going to say is look out for some amazing suits once the injuries pile up!
I'm very much interested to see what BlackProf.com has to say on the matter, because, as a white guy, who am I to play the race card?
However, I don't view the dress code as an isolated thing, this is part of larger trend to make the NBA palatable to 'corporate America', which sucks, I think. Make it about basketball and corporate America will come regardless. People who like/know basketball don't give a crap that AI has tats and that Kobe dresses like a choirboy. One represents what I like about sports in general and hoops in particular, one does not. I'll leave it to you to decide which is which...
Paranthetically, how are some aspects of the dress code different than say this?
I may work for you, but you don't own me on my own time, that's all I'm saying...
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