“What we came up with is a dress code that even Mark Cuban could comply with — if he wanted to,” NBA Commissioner David Stern said Tuesday regarding Monday’s memo to teams that a new dress code will go into effect at the start of the season.
Calling the new clothing limitations “business casual,” the league banned items such as sleeveless shirts, shorts, sunglasses while indoors, and headphones during team or league business. The policy also requires players on the bench who are not in uniform to wear sport jackets, shoes and socks.
“As it’s properly understood, it will be embraced,” Stern said. “The union’s fine with it. It’s quite liberal and easygoing.”
Cleveland Cavaliers star LeBron James, who said he would try to play in tonight’s exhibition game against the Memphis Grizzlies following a bout with pleurisy, supports the new dress code, stating: “Sometimes you feel lazy on a flight and you don’t want to put (dress) clothes on. But this is a job and we want to have fun, but it’s a job and we should look like we’re going to work.”
Meanwhile, Stern addressed the Executive Forum on Sports and Social Responsibility Tuesday, where he announced the league’s new “NBA Cares” initiative designed to raise and donate $100 million to charity over the next five years.
“All corporations have a social responsibility to contribute to the health, welfare and advancement of the communities in which they operate, but professional sports leagues carry a special obligation,” said Stern. “The remarkable celebrity that NBA players hold empowers them to effect change.”
The year-round effort begins this month as the NBA and its teams prepare to tip off the new season by holding interactive fan events and community outreach activities in all 30 NBA cities. In November and December, teams and players will host coat drives, turkey giveaways and serve food at soup kitchens. NBA Cares will come full circle in the offseason with a packed summer schedule of sanctioned charity games, Basketball without Borders on all four continents and the United Nations International Youth Day.
The NBA will work with a myriad of internationally-recognized youth-serving organizations, including: UNICEF; Reading Is Fundamental; Boys and Girls Clubs of America; Charities Aid Foundation; American/International Red Cross; Feed the Children; Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS; KABOOM!; Habitat for Humanity; Make-A-Wish; and Prevent Child Abuse America.
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