Allow me to digress into the world of basketball... while the NCAA tournament is still fresh in everyone's mind, I would like to address a disturbing trend that really came to the surface this year; the wearing of padding under the uniforms.
When I say padding, what I really mean is that players are now wearing what amounts to flak jackets. Think bull riders on ESPN2 on a Saturday at 11pm. Has it really gotten to the point where in order to play basketball we need to wear pads? Nike, for its part, offers "Nike Pro Combat base layers" on a webpage entitled "Nike Battleproof Combat". The website proclaims "Ready for the Final Combat" in reference to the "Final Four". Really? All I can think of is "Bill Lambier's Combat Basketball" (1991) for Super Nintendo. Remember that gem? Well, apparently Hudson Soft's depiction of the future of basketball was more prescient and accurate than EA's prediction of the future of football: Mutant League Football (however, in all fairness there is still time for teams to be comprised solely of robots, skeletons, and aliens. Maybe Bones Jackson really is the desiccated corpse of Bo Jackson?).
I have to believe that this trend is a way for companies to cash in on a sport that is low on equipment and tends to make its money from shoes. Nike alone offers the "deflex short" ($70; sliding pants), "deflex top" (bullet-proof vest), and the all important "deflex sleeve" (piece of spandex with a pad at the elbow). Word has it that in the first weeks of practice, Tom Izzo took this all to another level by having his players wear football pads. The rationale was that he wanted his players to get used to contact. Tough teams exemplifying hustle are fun to watch, however, if players are getting hit frequently and hard enough to necessitate the wearing of pads, I'm pretty sure that's a foul.
This unfortunate trend prompted UCLA coaching great John Wooden to say the following to Steve Inskeep of NPR, "I think they're permitting the game to become a little too physical today. I've been watching the games in the tournament. There's not a game when you don't see them on the floor a good part of the time. There's been a lot of blood here and there." Coach Wooden summarized his views by adding, "I think permitting the game to become too physical takes away a little bit of the beauty.
I haven't heard basketball described in this way since the cage games of the early 1900's. Here's to hoping that this trend and its associated accessories goes the way of the LA Gear Catapult and Reebok Pump.
