The Reason Why Basketball Coaches Wear Suits

Professionally tailored suits have, for ages and multiple centuries, been seen as a distinction between professional workers and blue collared ones. Giving off the aura of authority, professionalism, and distinction, suits were more popular in earlier decades, with many professions requiring their employees to don the suit to the office.

However, with more modern attitudes relaxing the requirement, many professions no longer require their employees to don a suit to the workplace. However, particularly in the NBA, many coaches and coaching staff continue to wear suits to both practice sessions and games.

Below, we are going to look into the reason why basketball coaches wear suits. We will discuss just how this trend began, whether or not coaches will continue to wear suits, and how wearing a suit provides a basketball coach with a certain level of authority over their respective team.

What Is A Suit?

Although considered by many to be formal wear, suits are actually informal wear in the Western dress code. Comprising of a suit jacket and trousers of identical textiles, the suit is paired with a dress shirt, tie, and dress shoes.

Originally originating in 19th-century Britain, the suit was seen as a more casual alternative to British country clothing.

And although suits are seen as more rigid and formal, they can come in a variety of differing colors, designs, and constructions. Similarly, cut and cloth, two or three-piece, and single or double-breasted suits provide the wearer with additional options and choices in look and design.

Primarily worn by business professionals, executives, and chief executive officers, the suit is seen as representing a level of authority, professionalism, and sophistication.

Are Coaches Mandated to Wear Suits?

Contrary to popular belief, the NBA does not have a dress code for coaches and members of the coaching staff. Rather, in 2005, under former NBA commissioner David Stern, the NBA introduced a mandatory dress code for all NBA and NBA Development League players.

The first major professional sports league to implement a dress code for its players, the dress code stated that all players must dress in business or conservative attire while arriving or departing from a scheduled game, while on the bench while injured, and when conducting official NBA business, including press interviews and charity events.

Specifically, clothing associated with hip-hop culture, including jerseys, jeans, hats, t-shirts, large jewelry, sneakers, and boots, were banned and prohibited from being worn before, during, and after an NBA game by an NBA player.

Under former NBA commissioner David Stern’s rules, a player found to be in violation of the dress code could be subject to fines and suspensions from the league for repeated offenses.

And while no official rule in the NBA handbook mandated that NBA coaches and their coaching staff wear a particular set of clothes, NBA coaches and their coaching staff have long worn suits before, during, and after an NBA game.

However, the league loosened the restrictions on NBA coaches, and the expectations from them by the league, in 2020 in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2020 NBA Bubble. Prior to the NBA Bubble, most NBA coaches would be seen wearing suits and a tie to the NBA game, however after the NBA Bubble, coaches began to wear more casual attire, including polo shirts and quarter-zips.

Why Do Basketball Coaches Wear Suits?

While not mandated in the NBA’s official rulebook, many coaches and their coaching staff continue to opt to wear a suit to an NBA game and any official NBA event. And while there are numerous reasons for why an NBA coach would opt to wear a suit to an NBA game, the most likely reasons are listed below.

• A Timeless Outfit – in terms of practicality, a suit offers a coach an easy to wear option without the need to overthink the decision. Suits are a timeless, fashionable, and nearly always in style. And a well-tailored, fitted suit will provide a coach and their staff the confidence needed to perform best from the sidelines.

• Suits Are Comfortable – contrary to popular belief, a well-fitted, tailored suit is comfortable and provides a perfect fit. Wearing a fitted suit provides sufficient room in both the arms and legs and allows coaches to easily and briskly walk alongside the side of the basketball court.

• Endless Styles – similarly, suits provide coaches with a near endless supply of styles and design options. From two-piece to three-piece suits, to differing colors, to differing dress shirts and shoes, suits can provide a level of uniqueness and personality for the wearer.

• Provides an Heir of Confidence – perhaps the greatest reason as to why basketball coaches and their coaching staff wear suits is the simple fact that a suit provides the wearer with a sense of confidence and authority. Seen as professional attire, wearing a suit helps an individual to exude that professionalism and establish themselves as an authority figure.