Image via Complex Original
From sneakers to headbands, NBA players have long been style muses for pickup basketball game stunting. Scour health club courts and high school gymnasiums throughout the country and you're bound to find a retiree who rocks a headband like Wilt Chamberlain or a kid in a crispy pair of new Jordans. Today, it's high time that the most stylish ballers get their recognition for inspiring everyday athletes who keep amateur courts looking fly despite widespread air balls and rampant turnovers. Lace up your high tops as we countdown The Most Stylish On-Court Basketball Players in NBA History.
Written by Sean Evans (@seanseaevans)
RELATED: The 15 Most Stylish On-Field Athletes of All Time
RELATED: The 10 Most Stylish NBA Players of the 2012/13 Season
RELATED: The 20 Most Stylish NBA Players on Instagram
20. Pat Riley
Position: Guard
Career: 1967-1970 (San Diego Rockets); 1970-1975 (Los Angeles Lakers); 1975-1976 (Phoenix Suns)
Long before the flopping culture of today's NBA, professional basketball was a game for fearless grinders, and no player embodied that savage mentality like the bewhiskered Pat Riley. Just as Jason Statham inspires otherwise hopeless guys with male pattern baldness, Riley was the de facto prince for dudes with omnipresent body hair. If you own it, this is step one of developing unstoppable swagger.
19. Anfernee Hardaway
Position: Guard-Forward
Career: 1993-1999 (Orlando Magic); 1999-2004 (Phoenix Suns); 2003-2006 (New York Knicks); 2007-2008 (Miami Heat)
Penny Hardaway has a decided style advantage over other players because he rocked one of the crispiest jerseys in NBA history. So, sure, Kevin Smith would've looked downright cosmopolitan in the mid-'90s Orlando Magic kit, but take a look at Jeff Turner's melancholy steez and call Penny a product of the uniform. Orlando Magic Starter jackets were an elementary school playground epidemic in 1995, which had as much to do with Shaq Fu ripping down backboards as it did with his especially dapper counterpart.
18. Nate Thurmond
Position: Center
Career: 1963-1974 (Golden State Warriors); 1974-1975 (Chicago Bulls); 1975-1977 (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Never underestimate how profoundly marked biceps and defined traps can improve your personal style, particularly if you spend as much time in a sleeveless shirt as Nate Thurmond. This guy looks like he could curl a Mazda Miata soft top with one arm. Clear out of the lane when a dude like this bum rushes the basket, unless you want a protruding shoulder muscle through the back of your skull.
Anyway, steamers and tailors can only do so much to make you look better in clothes. To take your look to the next level, do 1,000 push-ups a day, live on a steady diet of buffalo meat, and—one year from now—rip the sleeves off of everything you own. You're welcome.
17. Pete Maravich
Position: Guard
Career: 1970-1974 (Atlanta Hawks); 1974-1980 (New Orleans Jazz); 1980 (Boston Celtics)
If you want to live within 1,000 feet of a school, avoid pretty much everything about Pete Maravich's on-court look. But if you're running point for your intramural basketball team and want to represent yourself as an unhinged psychopath, then you've met your style spirit animal. This is the look of a man that steals copper wire for a living and tears ACLs with a devastating crossover for sport.
16. Carmelo Anthony
Position: Forward
Career: 2003-2010 (Denver Nuggets); 2010-Present (New York Knicks)
No. 7 hits the court showing as much skin as a Canterbury knight, but instead of an armor suit Melo's decked out in an 80/20 mix of nylon and spandex. Bottom line, Carmelo Anthony accessorizes with the limitless vanity you'd expect from a guy that fires up, like, 30 shots per game. Praise be to the shooter sleeve gawd.
15. Donald Earl "Slick" Watts
Position: Guard
Career: 1973-1978 (Seattle SuperSonics); 1978 (New Orleans Jazz); 1978-1979 (Houston Rockets)
As one of the first players to streamline his dome, Slick Watts is already an on-court style pioneer. But the Sonics guard became a uniform visionary when he tilted his headband like a sinking cruise ship on his forehead. This look has since been bastardized by Richard Simmons and every high school gym teacher from 1983-1991, but Watts still deserves a tip of the cap for being the trend's unquestioned originator.
14. Bill Walton
Position: Center
Career: 1974-1978 (Portland Trail Blazers); 1979-1980 (San Diego Clippers); 1982-1985 (San Diego Clippers); 1985-1987 (Boston Celtics)
Bill Walton's on-court style is immortal. For decades to come, scuzzy drifters/LSD salesmen will walk the festival grounds of Lollapalooza looking exactly like the '70s-era "Mountain Man." With his unkempt prospector beard and commando-style headband, Walton represented the rugged filthiness of the Pacific Northwest to the absolute fullest.
13. Artis Gilmore
Position: Center
Career: 1971-1976 (Kentucky Colonels); 1976-1982 (Chicago Bulls); 1982-1987 (San Antonio Spurs); 1987-1988 (Chicago Bulls/Boston Celtics)
Artis Gilmore patrolled the paint with the bespoke refinement of a hulking Gary Cooper, which is especially impressive considering his astonishing height. At 7-feet-2-inches, "The A-Train" could have been another style casualty with a resolute pituitary gland, like Shawn Bradley, Gheorghe Muresan, or Manute Bol. Instead, Gilmore used meticulously groomed facial hair and blustering machismo to become one of the most debonair big men in league history.
12. Anthony Mason
Position: Forward
Career: 1989-1990 (New Jersey Nets); 1990-1991 (Denver Nuggets); 1991-1996 (New York Knicks); 1996-2000 (Charlotte Hornets); 2000-2001 (Miami Heat); 2001-2003 (Milwaukee Bucks)
As the flagrant foul's official mascot, Anthony Mason had the genteel refinement of an intentional elbow to the eye socket. While most guys wrote inspirational platitudes on their shoes, this guy carved flippant proclamations in his fucking dome. You want to know who the king of New York is? Because it's not in a Kendrick verse, it's written in Rockwell extra bold font on the side of Anthony Mason's head.
11. Dennis Rodman
Position: Forward
Career: 1986-1993 (Detroit Pistons); 1993-1995 (San Antonio Spurs); 1995-1998 (Chicago Bulls); 1998-1999 (Los Angeles Lakers); 1999-2000 (Dallas Mavericks)
Dennis Rodman has the look of a vandalized subway car with no fewer than three active restraining orders, and his play complemented that barbaric aura flawlessly. Nowadays, every team saves a roster spot for one villainous goon whose sole purpose on the court is to draw frustration fouls in the paint. That group of tatted-up, psychopathic-looking misfits can thank "The Worm" for blazing a trail to the NBA for insufferable hooligans.
10. Kurt Rambis
Position: Forward
Career: 1981-1988 (Los Angeles Lakers); 1988-1990 (Charlotte Hornets); 1990-1992 (Phoenix Suns); 1992-1993 (Sacramento Kings); 1993-1995 (Los Angeles Lakers)
From the mid-'80s to the early '90s, YMCA racquetball courts throughout the country permeated with the virile moxie of Kurt Rambis. He's the everyman's Cary Grant, which is important because basic ass dude's need style icons, too. This is the look of a man who dominates a health club basketball game despite being picked last by his team captain. Is he a professional basketball player or a keyboardist in Cyndi Lauper's She's So Unusual Tour? It's impossible to tell, and you can't teach that kind of range.
9. Walt Frazier
Position: Guard
Career: 1967-1977 (New York Knicks); 1977-1980 (Cleveland Cavaliers)
Walt "Clyde" Frazier is what happens when you mix the unchecked vanity of Arthur Fonzarelli with jermaine Dupri's passion for stunting. This guy used to show up to Madison Square Garden in a Rolls Royce and knee-length trenchcoat; and that self-asserting constitution didn't weaken when he hit the court, either. To relive the '70s-era mystique of Madison Square Garden, stare at this picture while listening to a Sly & the Family Stone record.
8. Bob Cousy
Position: Guard
Career: 1950-1963 (Boston Celtics); 1969-1970 (Cincinnati Royals)
Before Bob Cousy, being a stylish basketball player meant dishing bounce passes in belted shorts and sporting no less than a half pound of pomade in your undercut. If not for The Houdini of the Hardwood's signature PF Flyers and flashy behind-the-back passes, the league would still be full of dude's wearing silk dolphin shorts and banking their underhand free throws off of the backboard.
7. Dwyane Wade
Position: Guard
Career: 2003-Present (Miami Heat)
Dwyane Wade looks like a cyborg who was sent to earth for the sole purpose of jumping passing lanes and head faking his way to the free throw line. Besides his showy intangibles, the Heat guard has done more for arm sleeves and leg warmers since 2006 than Olivia Newton-John has in her lifetime. If you show up to your high school varsity basketball tryout with this guy as your on-court style muse, expect a full-ride scholarship from John Calipari before your first three-man weave.
6. Wilt Chamberlain
Position: Center
Career: 1959-1965 (Philadelphia Warriors/San Francisco Warriors); 1965-1968 (Philadelphia 76ers); 1968-1973 (Los Angeles Lakers)
Wilt Chamberlain claims to have slept with 20,000 women during his basketball career. But if the robust machismo of his on-court style is any indication of the guy’s unrelenting libido, then that number has to be woefully underestimated. If you stare at this picture long enough, the room you're in will begin to reek of XO Imperial Cognac and lavender bubble bath.
5. Oscar Robertson
Position: Guard
Career: 1960-1970 (Cincinnati Royals); 1970-1974 (Milwaukee Bucks)
Vintage images of Oscar Robertson look like present day movie posters for a film starring Will Smith about Oscar Robertson. That's actually a really good idea, so you're welcome to the executives at Warner Bros. Pictures. Anyway, enduring style means never having to apologize for flossing.
4. John Stockton
Position: Guard
Career: 1984-2003 (Utah Jazz)
Vacuum-sealed short shorts can be dangerously confining when you're a give-and-go point guard, but John Stockton doesn't compromise his charmingly humdrum steez for comfort. Throughout his career, Stock baited players into underestimating his game by hitting the floor with the ceaseless bravado of a shift manager at Buffalo Wild Wings. As the NBA's all time leader in assists and steals, he teaches a valuable lesson about occasionally downplaying your look.
3. Julius Erving
Position: Forward
Career: 1971-1973 (Virginia Squires); 1973-1976 (New York Nets); 1976-1987 (Philadelphia 76ers)
There are certain people who look like Halloween costumes of themselves, like John Boehner as a sweaty politician or Chris Brown as a complete jerkoff. Similarly, Julius Erving looks like a guy who's famous for cradle dunking on fools. Today's players try to characterize their on-court looks with prison tats and mean mugs, but they'd all be better off borrowing a page from Dr. J's throwback guide to showing out.
2. Allen Iverson
Position: Guard
Career: 1996-2007 (Philadelphia 76ers); 2007-2008 (Denver Nuggets); 2008-2009 (Detroit Pistons); 2009-2010 (Memphis Grizzlies/Philadelphia 76ers)
In '96, Allen Iverson kicked down the league's door like a Napoleonic U.S. Marshal serving a warrant. With the Golden Era's luminaries fading, the NBA was desperate for a subversive superstar and Iverson was arguably the only guy brash enough to fill that void. A.I. was a transcendent athlete, but his size and unrestrained audacity are what made him relatable. At a time when AND1-inspired trash talk was the playground's soundtrack, Iverson was a sorely needed, baggy shorts adorned middle finger.
1. Michael Jordan
Position: Guard
Career: 1984-1993 (Chicago Bulls); 1994-1998 (Chicago Bulls); 2001-2003 (Washington Wizards)
Michael Jordan's impact as a commercial juggernaut has as much to do with his being an incomparable athlete as it does with his looking the part. No. 23 is to sneakers as Louis Armstrong is to swing notes, and the guy did more with a menacing sneer than most guys do with a tailored blazer. From the aerodynamic dome to his patent leather foundation, MJ's look personified the homicidal energy of a bloodthirsty champion. This is the uniform of a man who murders Patrick Ewing's dream annually and celebrates with a $35 cigar.