Posted on 07/09/2025 10:09:02 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
When the Los Angeles Lakers and Detroit Pistons faced each other in the 1988 and 1989 NBA Finals, the matchups featured some of the most iconic players in pro basketball. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy led the Lakers. Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Bill Laimbeer headlined the Pistons’ roster.
Those championship series also included another competition of sorts: a clash between the league’s most stylish, fashion-forward head coaches. The Lakers’ Pat Riley, who twice appeared on the cover of GQ magazine, preferred immaculate Armani suits. The Pistons’ Chuck Daly, whose dapper attire earned him the nickname “Daddy Rich,” owned at least 100 suits.
Times sure have changed. For NBA coaches, this is a golden age of comfort and convenience, a decade dominated by quarter-zips, not bespoke suits.
When the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder meet Wednesday night in Game 3 of the NBA Finals, the wardrobes of Rick Carlisle, Mark Daigneault and their assistant coaches almost certainly won’t qualify for the cover of any fashion magazine or for any of fashion’s most renowned runways. The Pacers’ and Thunder’s coaching staffs wore quarter-zips and pants during the series’ first two games, continuing a fashion sea change within the league that started in the 2020 NBA bubble and shows no signs of abating.
And if league officials ever revert to requiring more formal attire, more stringent regulations most likely would occur over the objection of the vast majority of league coaches and assistant coaches.
“We’ve had several votes over the last few years, and it’s well over 80 percent to 20 percent that is in favor of what we’re doing presently, and it’s closer to 85 or 90,” said Carlisle, the longtime president of the National Basketball Coaches Association.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Tom Landry was a class act. Great comparison, but Belichick with his ugly sweatshirt with cutoff raggedy sleeves is just as bad or worse as McDaniel..
Lol. That Miami coach speech pattern matches the way he dresses. I don’t understand why he’s employed in the NFL
I blame Nike and Reebok for making the deals with teams basically forcing coaching to wear team apparel on the sidelines.
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