Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion

Pulitzer winner Jackson (Survival Math) captures how NBA players have styled themselves over the decades in a visually appealing survey that sometimes falls short on substance. From 1946 to the present, Jackson spotlights hoopers whose style made waves, including “self-proclaimed hippie” Bill Walton’s shaggy hairstyle in the 1970s; Michael Jordan’s “capacious bespoke suits,” a look that seeped into mainstream fashion in the 1980s and ’90s; and Allen Iverson’s hip-hop–influenced diamond jewelry, “baggy jeans, and in-your-face body ink,” which stirred up public furor about the NBA’s “respectability” and in 2005 compelled commissioner David Stern to establish a “business casual” dress code at league events. Despite the book’s wealth of striking photos, Jackson misses a few opportunities, as when he gives short shrift to the way social justice issues and such movements as Black Lives Matter have shaped NBA fashion, and lets exultant descriptive writing (“envision Julius Erving swaggering outside the Nassau Coliseum in a cream-colored shirt and bell-bottom pants, the tint of Dr. J’s oversize sunglasses matching the burgundy of his leather lace-up shoes, the gold of his Casio wristwatch reflecting the tone of his pinkie ring”) overtake the stated goal of proving how “the story of clothing, fashion, and style in basketball over the past seventy-five years is also... the story of America.” It’s an eye-catching compendium that could have been more. (Sept.)