Why Are Basketball Players Dressed in Baggy Shorts?

Basketball is a sport that changes and evolves year after year. Basketball’s adaptive style applies to both the rules of the game and the fashion of its players. What is the purpose of basketball players wearing baggy shorts? Continue reading to discover.

Why Are Players Dressed in Baggy Shorts?

The main reason players wore baggy shorts was for fashion. The decision to wear unusually baggy shorts, like the armband in American football, is motivated more by personal preference and style than by any meaningful impact on performance. While the choice of baggy shorts is mostly ornamental, it does provide certain advantages during play that higher-inseam shorts do not.

Among these advantages are increased comfort and the opportunity to wear more clothing beneath the baggy shorts. Michael Jordan, for example, wore his college basketball shorts underneath his team-issued Chicago Bulls shorts as a good luck charm.

Aside from aesthetics and comfort, big-name players like Michael Jordan, Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal wearing baggy shorts had a huge influence on basketball gear.These players had a significant impact on the cosmetic element and popularity of basketball, as well as the prevalence of baggy shorts.

When Did Baggy Shorts First Become Popular in Basketball?

Basketball shorts that were long and baggy became fashionable in the early 1980s, and NBA shorts reached their longest length in the early 2000s.Before Michael Jordan requested baggier shorts from manufacturers, the NBA league standard was short-short or thigh-high shorts. Between 1980 and 2003, there was an increase in inseam length in industry-standard basketball attire, reaching a maximum inseam of 11 inches.

Long inseams peaked in 2003 when players wore shorts that hung well below the knee and even down to the mid-shin. The 2010s saw a progressive decrease in the length of players’ clothes and the re-emergence of shorts in active court play.

Are baggy shorts still worn by players?

Even now, many professional and college basketball players wear baggy shorts. However, there is a growing tendency indicating that shorter-length shorts will return to the court. This potential revival began in the mid-2010s when college teams like Rhode Island and Michigan chose thigh-high shorts as the standard for the 2018 NCAA Tournament finals.

Furthermore, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Tyler Herro, and Kelly Oubre Jr. have been seen practicing or playing in classic basketball short shorts. If these basketball icons have the same clout as those who came before them and affected the trend toward baggy shorts, it is relatively safe to anticipate that the trend will reverse and shorter shorts will return to prominence in the NBA in a big way.