The 6 Eras of NBA Fashion — from Restrained to Radical | Mitchell S. Jackson | TED

0:03 Serious two-part question for you.

0:06 What are you wearing?

0:08 And why?

0:10 Well I hope none of you are decked in an outfit against your will.

0:13 I happen to think our fashion choices

0:15 should be deeper than just because we like something.

0:19 Who am I?

0:20 I’m a long-ago hooper.

0:21 that jumper was wet, too.

0:24 Lifelong basketball fan, and long-aspiring fashionisto.

0:28 But most importantly, I wrote the book on NBA fashion.

0:33 Literally.

0:34 A project that taught me that the story of NBA fashion

0:37 is the story of Black people dating back to the 1940s,

0:41 which is also to say it's the history of America.

0:46 And I plan to show you how players' fashion choices

0:50 have been both a reflection of the times

0:52 and a catalyst for changing them.

0:55 And furthermore, how, for those who think these times are indeed troubling,

0:59 they serve as a model for styling ourselves into resistance.

1:05 The NBA was founded in 1946.

1:08 There aren't many off-the-court photos of its first fashion era,

1:11 but the ones that exist show men who adhere to the status quo.

1:16 Dress influenced by the conservation mandates of World War II.

1:22 It's important to note that early NBA fashion extends from pre-civil rights

1:27 into the heart of the movement.

1:31 The first Black player was drafted in 1950,

1:34 and those pioneers were also de facto ambassadors

1:38 of the best of their race.

1:42 Hence, many of them dressed like men who were set on proving their dignity.

1:47 Know this: Bob Cousy's civil rights were never in question.

1:53 Real talk, Bill Russell's smile

1:55 was a requisite for a respectable Black man.

2:00 Yeah, Wilt got spicy later,

2:03 but in the '50s, he conformed like everybody else.

2:07 The second era is shaped by the Civil Rights Act,

2:11 the Black Power movement and the war in Vietnam,

2:14 plus the huge popularity of soul music

2:17 and the birth of blaxploitation films.

2:21 By the 1970s, 75 percent of the league's players were Black,

2:26 and those Black players and some of the white ones

2:29 began dressing like young men

2:30 who were claiming their hard-fought freedom

2:33 to loosen or dash their ties

2:35 and assert themselves as individuals.

2:39 You can see it in their planetary afros,

2:42 in their kente cloth and dashikis,

2:45 in their hippie digs or flashy jewelry.

2:48 If you ask me,

2:49 Clyde Frazier's cape is a flamboyant symbol of freedom.

2:54 Here's Bill Walton, dressed in his then-radical politics.

2:58 And look, Doctor J could have been a blaxploitation action star

3:03 with his earthly afro and edgy fashion.

3:08 The NBA paid its first million-dollar per-season salaries

3:13 in 1979/80.

3:15 The following year, Reaganomics became law.

3:19 A few years later,

3:21 Michael Jeffrey Jordan entered the league

3:24 and in time became the most famous person on Earth.

3:28 Jordan once said that Republicans buy sneakers, too,

3:31 and though he since claimed his comment was in jest,

3:34 its apparent apoliticalness was a defining feature

3:38 of his eponymous third era.

3:40 As were the excesses born of America's booming economy

3:45 and the lingering illusion that Nixon’s Black capitalism initiative

3:49 was a net-positive for Black folks.

3:53 Jordan was raised on southern Black respectability and wore suits,

3:58 but he also customized them joints with an icon’s flair.

4:02 Look, little says nouveau riche like Magic wearing a fur in the 1980s.

4:07 (Laughter) Yeah, maybe his billionaire status now was what Nixon meant

4:13 by Black "economic equality."

4:15 Jordan's suit proportions, my God, aren't they '90s extravagance?

4:21 Yeah.

4:23 Dennis Rodman was the iconoclast of the Jordan era,

4:27 with style that bridged him to a liberated white world.

4:32 Hip hop becoming the most dominant force in youth culture

4:35 set the fourth era in motion.

4:38 In a short span, several rappers reached diamond sales,

4:42 and Outkast and Lauryn Hill won Grammys for album of the year.

4:47 Around that same time,

4:49 Allen Ezail Iverson became the poster child

4:54 for hip hop's influence on the NBA.

4:56 Not just his style, but his irreverence and aplomb.

5:01 However, the racist idea of thugs pervading hip hop colored the perception

5:06 of players following AI's lead.

5:09 And that infamous brawl known as the “Malice at the Palace,”

5:12 well, it didn’t help matters.

5:14 In fact, it spurred the NBA dress code,

5:18 i.e.

5:19 a new way to restrict Black men’s freedom of expression.

5:25 Hip hop is over the top, no doubt.

5:27 Which in AI’s case meant bling you could see from the nosebleeds

5:32 and the lollipop stress insouciance.

5:34 D Wade's getup reminds us that posturing tough

5:38 is part of hip hop's DNA.

5:41 Tell me this.

5:42 Does Jermaine O'Neal's gaudy jewelry challenge the stereotype

5:46 of the Black male thug?

5:48 While it was shaped by President Obama's first term,

5:52 David Stern instituting the NBA dress code

5:55 defined the fifth era.

5:57 Commissioner Stern's rules forced players to eschew their beloved hip hop gear

6:02 in favor of more conservative attire.

6:04 Restrictions that pushed them to become more experimental with their style.

6:09 Before long, the world that excluded Black men for ages

6:13 began offering them prime seats at fashion shows

6:17 and coveted tickets to the Met Gala.

6:20 Like the Black dandies of yore,

6:22 players of the dress-code era turned structural limitations

6:26 into a showcase of their boldness and creativity.

6:31 Kobe's cosmopolitan sensibilities challenged biases about the breadth

6:37 of Black men’s cultural influences.

6:39 Amar'e Stoudemire's fit insists that we take his style acumen seriously.

6:46 Ah, here’s Melo forging a place for Black men at fashion’s biggest night,

6:51 the Met Gala.

6:53 LeBron, wearing the last words of Eric Garner,

6:56 empowered a new generation of athletes to broadcast their politics.

7:02 Instagram crossing one billion users in 2018 marked the sixth era,

7:08 much thanks due to LeBron and D Wade and Chris Bosh.

7:12 Remember them Heatles?

7:13 The app helped transform the few minutes between a player's arena arrival

7:18 and the locker room

7:19 into an unscripted space of expression.

7:23 It also helped turn several players,

7:24 including some bench dudes like P.J.

7:27 Tucker up there, into cultural figures

7:29 who were just as big, if not bigger, in the fashion world

7:33 than in the world of sports.

7:36 Not to mention, some players used their expanded platforms to push

7:41 for social change.

7:42 Westbrook has made a great case

7:44 as his era's foremost iconoclast.

7:49 LeBron, he dressed his calves in Thom Browne for a playoff tunnel walk.

7:54 A viral moment that accrued the whole damn league fashion cachet.

8:00 Hip hop is born as rebellion,

8:03 and Ja Morant's diamond-encrusted grill is a throwback to that defiance.

8:09 But where are we now?

8:12 I don't know about you,

8:14 but what I see is a government decimating civil rights,

8:18 assaulting freedom of speech,

8:21 erasing the history of marginalized groups,

8:25 targeting immigrants.

8:27 How will this broad oppression shape a league

8:30 in which Black players are still the largest share,

8:33 and foreign-born players are some of its biggest stars?

8:37 In every era, NBA players, the Black ones in particular,

8:41 have used fashion to challenge sports

8:44 casting them as less deserving of their human rights and their dignity.

8:51 And there's a model in that for all of us, right?

8:55 Which is also to ask,

8:57 what's our relationship to power?

9:02 And not just because we like it,

9:05 because we want to resist,

9:08 what are we wearing tomorrow?

9:12 I mean, we as in you and me,

9:17 as in all of us.

9:20 Thank you.

9:21 (Applause)