“ Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion,” is an oversized hard- cover tome, 224 pages about the personal style of NBA players through the years and packed with photos. But don’t call it a coffee-table book. “To me, it’s cultural criticism, and so it’s not just ‘Buy this book and look at the pictures,’” author Mitchell S. Jackson says. “I spent as much time revising this as I do any other piece of writing, so I do want people to know that there’s actual writing in the book — labored over and conceived and revised.” Jackson tracks the evolution of the players’ style through six eras: The Conformists (1946-1963), Flamboyance (1964-1980), Jordan (1981-1998), The Iverson Effect (1999-2009), Dress Code (2010-2015) and The Insta-Tunnel Walk (2016-today). A perusal of the book, which debuted in September, reveals countless photographic gems: Bill Russell buttoned up in a shirt and tie, Dennis Rodman in a crop top and belly chain, Michael Jordan’s bold and boxy suits, Pete Maravich in disco chic, Allen Iverson’s cornrows and tattoos, LeBron James’ “I Can’t Breathe” T-shirt, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looking devastating in Tom Ford. The photos are a delight and worth revisiting again and again. But an under- standing of the role fashion has played in the culture and appeal of the NBA comes through Jackson’s essays and the various asides that pepper the book — features like an interview with a jewelry designer with many NBA player clients, or a list of the top 10 sneakers of all time. Jackson, a native of Oregon, is the John O. Whiteman Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the Department of English at Arizona State University. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his profile of Ahmaud Arbery for Runner’s World magazine and is the author of one novel (“The Residue Years”) and one collection of short stories (“Oversoul”). He is currently working on his next novel, as well as pieces for The New York Times Magazine and Esquire. We recently spoke with Jackson about “Fly: The Big Book of Basketball Fashion.” Answers have been edited for space and clarity. Phoenix New Times: How did your work on “Fly” get started? Mitchell S. Jackson: The genesis of it was my editor at Esquire is friends with the publisher of Artisan and he obviously knows my work. My very first column was on basketball, he knew I loved fashion, so he brought the idea to me, and I like everyone else had been paying attention to how much emphasis the NBA had been putting on their players, the fashion of their players, so it seemed like a good idea. But the longer answer is that I played high school and college basketball and have loved fashion since I was a child — looking at GQ magazine and Esquire as a kid — so this is really kind of a dream project for me in the long scheme of things. How did you decide to organize the book by eras? The first idea I had was to organize it by decades. But my editor pushed me on that and said, “Well, decades are actually kind of arbitrary.” I was like, “Oh yeah, you’re right.” We need eras, because eras are defined by some kind of phenomenon, whether that’s historical or social or cultural. So it became more intensive research because I had to try to figure out where the delineations were and what were the things that were defining those differences. What kind of research goes into a project like this? It tapped all my basketball knowledge. The first thing I had to do was really become familiar with the inception of the league and what came before. And then I had to do a lot of research on people who played before I was alive, those early heroes. And then actu- ally find pictures of them in street clothes or fashion, which was super hard because why would George Mikan be photographed in his suit? So that was tough. But when I got to the 1970s and certainly the 1980s, when I was alive, it got a little easier to choose the players. I would go through an era, see who were the stars, see if I could find photos of them and then do it all again (for the next era). Finding the photos was often difficult, especially for the early times. Later, I could be like, “Hey, GQ, you shot a cover of Chris Paul. Can we license that photo?” But early on, it was a lot more difficult. How many pictures did you have to go through? I can’t even tell you. But I’ll say that we also had a great photo editor, because sometimes I would say, “Artis Gilmore was a stylish player, >> p 16 From disco chic to couture and hip-hop, a Phoenix author chronicles the history of style in the NBA. BY JENNIFER GOLDBERG LeBron James Illustrations by Keith Vlahakis Photo courtesy of Artisan Books
