No going again – Liverpool legend calls it quits
Anyone who has ever caught a glimpse of a Russell Westbrook press conference would have inevitably thought one of two things.
One: man, that guy knows how to dress.
Or, two: what the hell is that guy wearing?
Westbrook is but one NBA player who turns almost as many heads for his sartorial choices as he does for his scintillating play, and Dime Magazine this week released a fascinating look into the background of why the Thunder point guard and his peers opt for such eclectic outfits.
It all began with a moment of racially- charged controversy 12 years ago, when the NBA was struggling for relevance after the retirement of Michael Jordan and thencommissioner David Stern took aim at the league’s ‘ hip- hop culture’.
If that term was something of a dog whistle, Stern lifted the volume when introducing a dress code, banning among other things sleeveless shirts, chains and “headgear of any kind”.
Seen to specifically target the African American player base, the new restrictions did not go over well.
“The NBA is young black males,” said Indiana’s Jermaine O’Neal. “What’s next, we can’t wear our hair in cornrows?”
Allen Iverson, one of the most popular players in the league, was even more blunt: “You can put a murderer in a suit and he’s still a murderer.”
What then transpired was something of a victory for both parties: Stern got what he wanted and the players found different ways to express their fashion sense.
Specifically, the NBA was inundated with a new style, characterised by empty- or clearlense glasses, bowties and the type of dress shirts you’d be brave to wear at a Ponsonby pub.
“The rise of ‘ nerd chic’ and the players’ responses are clearly a challenge and a subversion to the Former Liverpool and England football captain Steven Gerrard has announced his retirement a week after confirming he would not be returning to play for MLS side LA Galaxy.
“Following recent media speculation surrounding my future I can confirm my retirement from playing professional football,” Gerrard, 36, said in a statement yesterday.
“I’ve had an incredible career and I’m thankful for each and every moment of my time with Liverpool, England and LA Galaxy.”
Gerrard spent virtually his entire career at Liverpool having made his debut as a substitute against Blackburn Rovers in 1998.
He is third on the club’s all- time appearances li st with 710, behind only Jamie Carragher and Ian Callaghan.
He scored 120 goals in 504 Premier League games.
One of the most highly- regarded midfield players in world football at his peak, he was capped 114 times for England, 40 as captain, and played in six major tournaments.
Gerrard left Liverpool in 2015 and dress code,” said Dr David J Leonard, professor of critical culture, gender and race studies at Washington State University. “It was a sartorial stance that not only made player agency clear but questioned the accepted definitions of what professional clothing looks like.”
So next time you shake your head at what Westbrook’s wearing, remember how he and his cohort have made the best of a bad situation. You’re in White Plains, New York, sleeping in. Your slumber is startled by the phone. It’s the Knicks, asking you to be at Madison Square Garden in two hours to play your first NBA game.
Can you make it? More to the point, given the perilous nature of New York traffic, exactly how do you make it?
That was the adventure enjoyed by Marshall Plumlee on Monday, when the 24- year- old received a last- minute call- up for the encounter with the Hawks, testing the full range spent 18 months with Galaxy, scoring five goals in 34 appearances.
While he never managed to win an English league title medal with Liverpool, Gerrard will forever be associated with the Champions League final in 2005 when Liverpool fought back from 3- 0 down at halftime to beat AC Milan on penalties in Istanbul.
Gerrard scored Liverpool’s first goal and drove the team on to arguably one of the greatest nights in the club’s history.
Liverpool had looked on course for a first title in 24 years in 2014 after an 11- match winning streak but Gerrard’s costly stumble at home to of transport options available to someone needing to get downtown in a hurry.
Plumlee had been playing for the Knicks’ development league team, based in Westchester, when he was woken at 10am and told to get to Manhattan for a noon tip- off, as regular centre Joakim Noah was ill.
“I was asleep,” Plumlee told reporters after the game. “I was going to sleep in a little bit. Imagine being woken up and saying, ‘ Hey, we need you to guard Dwight Howard’.”
An enticing offer, indeed. Plumlee jumped on the train and reached the island after 11.30am, hailing a cab to complete the 10- minute drive to MSG and paying the driver an extra $ 60 to run a red light. The cabbie still became stuck in traffic, however, so Plumlee turned to what came natural as an athlete: he ran.
Some impressive rookie hustle from the first- year pro but it went largely in vain, arriving during the first quarter before playing only five Chelsea in April gifted Demba Ba a goal that put the visitors on the way to a 1- 0 victory.
Liverpool then blew a 3- 0 lead to draw 3- 3 at Crystal Palace in their next game, the penultimate of the season, all but ending the club’s title charge and allowing Manchester City to claim it.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what if that didn’t happen,” Gerrard once said.
As well as the Champions League, Gerrard won two FA Cups with Liverpool, three League Cups and the UEFA Cup.
Individually he was named in third place in Fifa’s World Player of the Year in 2005 and PFA Player of the Year in 2006.
“I feel lucky to have experienced so many wonderful highlights and I’m proud to have played over 700 games for Liverpool, many as captain, and helping to bring major honours back to the club, none more so than the famous night in Istanbul,” Gerrard said in his lengthy statement.
He has been linked with a return to Anfield in a coaching capacity. If anyone in Australasia is becoming excited by the news that scouts from at least 16 teams will watch the NFL try- outs of Jason Taumalolo and Valentine Holmes, let’s remember that means nothing.
Scouts will watch anyone; it’s their job. Maybe one in a hundred players they see will get anywhere near the professional levels and the rest will instead be subjected to the type of anonymous insults faced recently by Tim Tebow.
While Taumalolo and Holmes are aiming to swap the NRL for the NFL, Tebow — not by choice — has left behind that league and is attempting to crack the MLB, with poor results.
After watching Tebow play in the Arizona Fall League, against real baseball players with real shots at the majors, one scout said Tebow “stinks”, another called him “awful”, while a third said he was “ugly”.
Taumalolo and Holmes, both handsome men, will surely avoid such a fate, but shouldn’t get their hopes up.
Steven Gerrard