Flat front pants are back in style. They’ve actually been in style for a few years but I’ve been in denial. I like/ love pleated pants. Don’t get me wrong; I have flat front dress pants, suit pants and khaki’s. For a night out on the town: Flat Front Pants. For working in an office: Flat Front Plants. For Refereeing Basketball: PLEATED PANTS.
When my basketball journey began in 1998, we where wearing flat front pants. These pants where made with a fire swallowing polyester fabric. You’d catch fire if you stood to close to a radiator. Flat front pants where tight, uncomfortable and left scars. They almost made me give up refereeing basketball.
‘Men shouldn’t wear pleated pants’.
I hear fashion experts say that on talk shows and reality shows. Then you get friends, girlfriends and wives repeating this. I wish they would stop. I think folks are imagining the days of Doctor J and Magic Johnson, with those tight booty shorts. Referees need comfort. All you need is one overweight referee to trump the Magic Johnson visual.
I pray that flat front pants for basketball referee don’t make a come back. That would be a fruitless nightmare.
