NBA Players- Before They Speak, Their Suit Bespoke

Grantland has an interesting article from Wesley Morris on the "rise of the NBA nerd." In his estimation, there has been a shift in black culture that has opened up possibilities for personalities such as Kevin Durant, Amare Stoudemire and LeBron James, not to mention Kanye West or Lil Wayne, throw on clothes that would get them beat up a decade ago. I think Mr. Morris tries to get too deep with it, however. It seems to me that, more so than a broad cultural shift illustrated by Jay-Z rapping "Y'all niggas acting way too tough / Throw a suit and get it tapered up" in Changes Clothes or, as above, Kanye rapping "Before he speak, his suit bespoke," in Estelle's American Boy, this represents a smaller shift amongst young and prominent black men. The lyrics themselves reveal this; there are not broad swaths representing young black culture grabbing bespoke suits after all. More representative would be "I'm not a businessman, I'm a BUSINESS, mannn." LeBron wants to be the first billionaire athlete and he has almost as many side business interests as he has endorsement deals (he's boys with Warren Buffett for the love of god). Amare seems to be actively attempting to become an NBA fashion icon (and not in the tragic D Rodman way). K Diddy is following in LeBron's footsteps. And all these guys are just going down the trail blazed by Kanye and, first and foremost, Jay-Z (aka, "the black Warren Buffett"). All of these gentlemen are still heavily invested in their image, it's just a different image that they are trying to cultivate. Street cred has ceded way to boardroom cred. To the young, black, talented and wealthy, drug dealing and getting shot at is no longer as cool as the Wizard of Omaha... who woulda thunk it?


(IMAGES: Too many to separate, but from Google Images [natch])