David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, recently announced that this season he would enforce a dress code rule. This means that when NBA players are traveling to a game, attending a press conference, or taking part in any other type of business dealing with the NBA, they will have to dress in business casual attire.

This new rule has irked many of the NBA players, but I think it’s long overdue. Stern has been the commissioner of the NBA since 1984 and knows what he’s doing.

If players can’t dress in a professional way, they don’t deserve to be playing professional basketball. It looks sloppy when players are dressed in T-shirts and sweatpants entering the arena and the cameras are taping them.

Indiana Pacers’ guard Steven Jackson has called this new rule a “racist statement.” And last week he wore all his gold chains during interviews to protest this rule.

The NBA has more problems than players dressing sloppy, but at least they are heading in the right direction. It was horrible when the brawl broke out between the Pacers and the Detroit Pistons.

Ron Artest, a culprit in the brawl, said recently that he isn’t going to tone down his aggression and this is something that referees will have to deal with.

On Oct. 23, journalist Ed Bradley interviewed former Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards guard Michael Jordan. The interview focused on his new book that hit shelves yesterday.

In his new book he makes the comment that “the young players in the NBA are being cheated these days.” Jordan says that players are being given rewards that they don’t earn.

It is doubtful that the league restores their prominence of when players such as Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson were playing.