MILWAUKEE — Over the weekend, the Los Angeles Lakers honored legendary coach and current Miami Heat executive Pat Riley with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena. The eight-foot tall, 510-pound bronze sculpture captures Riley in a triumphant pose with one arm raised above his head and dressed in his iconic Armani suit.
Few coaches in NBA history, if any, have been as stylish as Riley, who commanded the sidelines in an array of designer suits and alligator belts. It was no surprise, then, that he had some thoughts about the current fashion trends in the league.
“I wish it went back to coat and ties,” Riley said of the NBA coaches’ dress code. “I think an audience wants to see somebody on the sidelines who looks like a leader, dresses like a leader, acts like a leader.”
Riley’s comments quickly went viral and generated plenty of conversation across the sports media landscape. One of the more notable takes came from Stephen A. Smith, who said on ESPN’s First Take that he was “so happy” Riley brought up the topic and called out the league’s coaches and players for “dressing like y’all shopping at Target or something.”
Historically, coaches wore suits on the sidelines, but the dress code was relaxed in the during the NBA’s COVID Bubble in 2020 due to the heat and humidity in Orlando. Once the coaches were allowed to wear NBA licensed polo shirts the Bubble, they haven’t looked back. The current rules state that head coaches and assistants must wear “business attire” during games, which includes quarter-zip tops, a new favorite among staffs around the league.
Would the coaches ever go back to suits? Current Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers, who became an NBA head coach in 1999 and wore suits on the sidelines for two decades, has heard a possible solution: Have coaches dress up in the playoffs.
“It’s a tough one because quarter zips are so comfortable, you know? They’re so easy to wear,” said Rivers, who played for Riley for two-plus seasons with the New York Knicks, and credits the Hall of Famer with convincing him to join the coaching ranks instead of becoming a broadcaster.
“I will say this and I brought this up to someone (and) that’s going to go through the chain, I do think it wouldn’t be a bad idea during playoffs because the most you’re going to travel for is two games and wearing suits in the playoffs shows the significance of the playoffs,” Rivers added. “Easy to travel (with suits). I would be in favor of that one, other than I would have to start working out again because none of my suits would fit anymore.”
The coaches’ desire to remain casual is as much about avoiding the stress and logistical hassle of packing half a dozen different suits, shirts and ties for an extended road trip as it is about their comfort on game day. Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who stepped down as the head of the National Basketball Coaches Association earlier this season, told The Athletic last summer that the most recent vote among coaches on the dress code was “well over 80% to 20% that is in favor of what we’re doing presently, and it’s closer to 85 or 90[%].”
Whether that changes remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Riley’s comments have everyone thinking. That includes Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who succeeded Riley in Miami in 2008, and has worked with him for nearly three decades.
“Pat and I debate about this all the time. We went to the Hall of Fame this year for (Heat owner) Micky Arison and so I had to wear back-to-back nights of suits, and I swear that was all Pat was talking about,” Spoelstra said Tuesday. “He’s like, ‘See, you like great, you look presentable.’ And I said, ‘Well, I had to go get these just for this weekend, and I don’t plan on wearing them again until the next Hall of Fame event we get to go to.'”
“But I can see the arguments both ways. I think as long as we look professional, look different than the players, that’s great. I think it’s becoming a little bit different anyways in corporate America. But then I also see Pat’s point of view,” Spoelstra continued. “When I see the footage of him from the Lakers to the Knicks to the Heat, he did look sharp. But he wore suits differently than us mortals. We just didn’t look the same as the way he looked. That was an iconic Armani look.”
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Spoelstra also joked that Riley gave him a few suits during his days as an assistant coach, which taught him an immediate lesson about fashion.
“I looked like the lead singer for the Talking Heads [David Byrne],” Spoelstra said. “I didn’t realize I had to tailor the suits.”
Would current coaches make the same faux pas if they had to go back to wearing suits? Or would Riley’s spirit inspire them? Heat guard Tyler Herro, one of the league’s most adventurous dressers, would like to find out.
“I think they should go back to [suits],” Herro said. “Make the coaches do a little bit more, dress a little harder, put some swag into it. I want to see which coach really got some swag.”