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The 6 Eras of NBA Fashion — from Restrained to Radical | Mitchell S. Jackson | TED
The 6 Eras of NBA Fashion — from Restrained to Radical | Mitchell S. Jackson | TED
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Subtitles (164)
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:
1:48
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,
2:22
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)
4:08
Yeah, maybe his billionaire status now was what Nixon meant
4:13
by Black "economic equality."
4:15
Jordan's suit proportions,
4:17
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,
5:16
it spurred the NBA dress code,
5:18
i.e. 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
6:28
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. Tucker up there,
7:28
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,
8:38
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)
The 6 Eras of NBA Fashion — from Restrained to Radical | Mitchell S. Jackson | TED - Video học tiếng Anh
