Dressing for success starts in shootaround
When it comes to breaking a sweat, the long and short of it are part of the latest fashions
Rockets forward P.J. Tucker loves wearing a hoodie. He swears by it.
The hoodie embraced him on the court when the NBA did not his rookie season. He then spent five itinerant years in the international basketball wildness, before he reemerged like a revenant, sweaty, heated and hooded with the Suns in 2012.
He had figured out his pregame routine by then. It helped him stick in the league as one of its stickiest defenders and earn a four-year, $32 million contract from the Rockets this season.
Like an Inuit with the hoodie’s porthole drawn tight during warmups, he traces the arc of the 3-point line as if it were the Arctic Circle. His upper body radiates enough heat to last an hour, when coach Mike D’Antoni deploys him off the bench.
He tailors his lower half with the same pregame preparation in mind, but his concerns about temperature and confinement are reversed.
“If my head’s sweating, I’m good,” Tucker said. “My legs going to stay warm.”
His shorts look salvaged from a grizzly attack. They are sweatpants sheared so they only reach his midthigh. He wants his legs cooled and unencumbered.
“I hate feeling my shorts bang on my knees,” Tucker said. “I like the short-shorts. Not everybody’s a fan of short-shorts.”
Au contraire. This ensemble, which appears to clash in terms of fashion and weather sensibility, has proved Tucker was ahead of his time. Now, more than ever, the NBA has diversified warm-up get-ups and supports personal modifications that often are for snugger fits.
“As we talk to players, they’re customizing with all of the gear they’re getting,” said Christopher Arena, NBA senior vice president of identity, outfitting, and equipment. “We all have these idiosyncrasies that maybe get us in the right mood to focus on what we have to do.”
After players in the 1990s and 2000s sought sizes with more X’s than an adult video title, the sartorial cycle of shorts is coming full circle.
In 2005, then-commissioner David Stern implemented a business-casual dress code. A decade later, LeBron James shifted to smaller shorts to set a professional example.
“Yao Ming,” Arena recalled of the 7-4 former Rockets center, “had the biggest shorts we had in terms of width and length.”
Now, Arena said, the symbiotic influence between the fashion and athletics worlds is trending toward “tighter-fitting things from our players.”
NBA game shorts are slimmer than the practice variety. Rockets point guard Chris Paul wears a longsleeve compression shirt and prefers sawed-off elastic sweatpants like Tucker, who said a regular pair would be sodden from sweat.
Tucker does not like fulllength compression tights either. He would rather expose his red compression shorts, which is a base layer many players use instead of underwear.
“It’s freedom,” Tucker said of his lower-half attire.
Tucking’s role
In practice, James Harden tucks the bottom of his shorts up into the bottom of his compression shorts, creating the appearance of a seal around his quadriceps.
The tuck method is prohibited in games. That is why idling rebounders tug up their shorts during free throws to let out steam.
According to NBA rules, game shorts cannot extend lower than an inch above the top of the knee. There is no mandate for a minimum length.
“We’ve never gone away from short-shorts,” Arena said.
Logos cannot be altered to free up flesh, but the inseam-to-outseam ratio prevents players from potentially uncouth exposure.
“At some point there is a minimum length the shorts could be because of the practicality of the manufacturing,” Arena said.
Tucker wears the smallest shorts available, with a size 0 inseam. Harden wears a plus-2. Rockets veteran center Nene, who had peaked when shorts dangled to their lowest, seeks the biggest pair.
Rockets point guard Bobby Brown chuckled at Tucker’s alterations (“Yeah, I don’t know what that is”), but he is a hoodie convert after a summer that added cachet to the garment.
Polarizing social media debates waged over videos of forward Carmelo Anthony training and raining shots in offseason pickup games. He was clad in a taut sleeveless hoodie tucked into sweatpants that were tucked into socks. From that cotton cocoon Anthony’s new persona, “Hoodie Melo,” was born.
The Thunder traded for Anthony during training camp, where he conducted an introductory news conference wearing his jersey over a hoodie.
On opening night in Oklahoma City, $65 Anthony-branded hoodie sweatshirts sold out in seven minutes, according to ESPN.
“Melo wore his because he wanted to lock in and tune everything out,” said Brown, sold on the hoodie’s mystique. “I wear mine to sweat and because I’m bald, so when you don’t have a cut, you’ve got to cover it up.”
The speedskater look
Nike, after signing a $1 billion deal to take over NBA apparel this year, designed the latest panoply of outfits and gear for travel, practice and games. After players critiqued the limited visibility and cumbersome flop of previous hoodies, the sportswear giant is marketing “the first performance” hoodie. The lightweight flexible fleece contoured around the temples for complete peripheral vision has become all the rage.
Players zip up for that speedskater look.
“This is perfect,” said Brown, 33, who started playing in a hoodie for the first time over the summer. “I can shoot and handle the ball. When it gets wet, it doesn’t get that heavy.”
Arena said the NBA favors the hoodies over the “slovenly” former method for bundling up to keep warm: “Towel accessorize, let’s call it.”
“We want to be in something with swag and style,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal said in an online ad for the “Showtime” hoodie.
Richard Jefferson rolls his eyes at the praise. A 17-year veteran who has participated, willingly and not, in several eras of NBA style, Jefferson recalled the throwback jersey craze that skyrocketed revenue, but when it threatened the NBA brand, the dress code usurped it.
‘It’s all for attention’
Jefferson expects the NBA will begin to frown upon bench players concealing their sulks beneath the hoods. He views the hoodie trend as an obnoxious fad that in “my old man opinion” will not last more than two seasons.
“It’s all for attention,” he said. “It’s not functional to wear a hoodie and shoot. It makes you come across edgy, focused, locked in.”
He considers throwing up a hoodie a way of putting up a front.
“Give me Plane Jane Tim Duncan before you give me Hoodie Melo,” Jefferson said.
Jefferson attacks the hoodie’s functionality but does not debunk its comforts. He teamed with Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith, who relied on a hoodie to hear the same music playlist from his headphones during every warm-up. Fewer songs meant he completed his shooting routine efficiently.
Tucker coordinated his comforts before they were cool He once was too locked in to hear an opposing coach incite a comedy roast among fellow coaches. Only when Tucker finished his warmup did he stop the Jay-Z blaring from his headphones to receive a playful taunt.
“Hey, Tuck,” Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon goaded. “Nice shorts.”
He laughs about his fashion choices as much as anyone. He knows they work.
“It’s not about being cool,” Tucker said. “It’s my thing.”