![]() ![]() Kaminsky often wears tights with soft, built-in pads to protect his knees, and shows just an inch or two of skin at midcalf.īut others have resisted. Some of the game’s top players have joined, if not propelled, the trend, including Wisconsin’s Frank Kaminsky and Duke’s Jahlil Okafor, who tend to keep their legs covered with tights. Their opponent, New Mexico State, mostly wore black tights.īut Ohio State beat Virginia Commonwealth on Thursday with Scott wearing white tights and Williams wearing black. On Friday, most Kansas players wore white tights to the midcalf, leaving an inch or two of skin above the sock. ![]() “I would like to say it keeps my legs warm, but it doesn’t really have an effect,” he said. “I pull my socks all the way up and just tuck the tights into my socks.”īut Arizona guard Gabe York likes to “show a little skin” when he wears tights. “My socks are extremely long because I have big feet,” he said. Williams, the sweat-producing Ohio State center, keeps his long legs completely hidden. When Michigan State’s lineup took the floor Friday, nine of the 10 elbows were bare, but only one set of legs was visible - and even then, only a tease of a couple of inches below the knee.Įven when the tights match (they are supposed to), some lineups take the floor wearing five styles of socks, in different colors and worn to varying lengths - some pulled to the knee, others scrunched above the edge of their high-top shoes. It has become the one part of the basketball uniform available for sartorial self-expression. Now, the lower two or three feet of players are, like the blank bodies of paper dolls, an opportunity to mix and match. a few years ago with the likes of Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. The wearing of tights gained traction in the N.B.A. He was suspended for violating team rules that had nothing to do with breaking norms in the dress code.) His stop at midthigh - think of David Hasselhoff in “Baywatch” - but Obekpa’s legs made no appearance in the tournament. ![]() John’s center Chris Obekpa is the rare player with shorts above his knee. Knee-length basketball shorts are a trend that appears nearly irreversible, like denim. (to all but Stockton, it seemed), down to the Y.M.C.A. The skin between the hem of the shorts and the top of the high tops has been shrinking for 25 years, since Michigan’s “Fab Five” teams popularized shorts to the knees. Players on the court, like starlets on a red carpet, prefer to bare their arms and hide their legs. Even today, among basketball’s rare sightings are the elbows and forearms of the Knicks’ Carmelo Anthony.Īs if pulled by gravity, the cover-up trend moved downward. California-Irvine’s 7-6 center, Mamadou Ndiaye, played Friday with white tights and a tiny gap of skin above his ankle.Įxplanations offered by today’s players were both broad and suspect: leg warmth, sweat control, superstition and vanity among them.Įventually, basketball had a farewell to bare arms altogether, with the likes of Allen Iverson wearing skintight sleeves, whether for fitness or fashion, or a bit of both. Today’s top players might show three inches, if any at all. ![]() Depending on how high he pulled his socks, Chamberlain might have shown three feet of leg. men’s tournament, skin is concealed behind the triple protection of shorts hemmed below the kneecap, socks raised to the calf and a base layer of tights underneath.Īn entire team might not combine to reveal as much leg as the short-short-wearing John Stockton, and certainly not Wilt Chamberlain, the 7-footer nicknamed the Stilt. In a trend on full display at the N.C.A.A. In a game with so many tall people, you might expect a little more leg.īut basketball players increasingly cover their lower bodies, mostly out of fashion, partly out of protection, sometimes out of prudish modesty. ![]()
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