"Business Look" is Long Gone, All About Show

It doesn't take a whole lot to notice that with each generation the choice of clothing changes. 30 years ago, "skinny" jeans and "booty shorts" were deemed unacceptable and were, in a word, offensive. Fashion will always change, it's part of the way society works. But in today's world, in this day and age where fashion is not so fashionable, if you're a professional athlete chances are you, stereotypically speaking, have dressed like a clown at least once.

Westbrook and KD displaying their "fashion"

A few years back, the NBA established a dress code for the players' pregame and post game outfits. It's silly to think that grown men would have to be told what to wear and yet we continue to see certain players try to draw attention to themselves through their choice of attire. The different colored skinny jeans, the off-colored sport coats, and the glasses without lenses need to go and go now.

What happened to professionalism? When I played high school ball, every game day the required outfit consisted of dress shoes, dress pants, dress shirt, and team sweater vest. Even if our record wasn't impressive, we never walked into a gym and looked like bums. We looked classy and we looked like a team. You rarely see that in the NBA today. Guys like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, and LeBron James litter the internet with their choice of clothing and there cannot be any other explanation for their choice of clothing than for the added attention. It's a shame that the professional athletes kids look up to can't dress professionally and business-like to go to work. Every doctor I've seen has on dress pants and a dress shirt. All of my teachers and professors come to class every day in that very same attire. Why do athletes need to try to stand out so much?

Glasses without lenses are "in"

It's not just about the individual either. It will always be about representing your organization or ball club. To me that means that handling yourself with class should be implied. Why make a spectacle of yourself and pass yourself off as someone who either A.) loves attention or B.) doesn't care about honoring a league rule? You leave your house, you drive however far to the arena, you walk in a back door to the locker room. Is wearing a suit and tie so taxing that it can't be done for no more than 45 minutes? Not to mention if you play like a dog and have a bad performance, it will be even harder to take you seriously in the post game press conference if you're sitting there with 3D movie glasses on and a shirt you bought from the Baby Gap.

All I'm saying is that we hold these professional athletes to a standard unlike any other profession. Sports drive society and these athletes have more responsibilities than just playing ball. If they're supposed to set good examples for younger kids and represent an organization then look the part. Put on a shirt and tie and look presentable before and after the game. It's just as much of a responsibility to dress appropriately as it is to play hard. Each generation has a different taste in fashion, yes, but what certain players are wearing is hardly fashionable. It needs to stop.