Iman Shumpert did his best to sneak one past David Stern and the other authority figures in the NBA this weekend. Iman recently shaved a logo of one of his corporate sponsors, Adidas, into his head and actually debuted the look during the Knicks win over the Bucks on Friday night. It didn’t take long for word to get to the NBA front office, as the next day Iman posted another picture of his hair to his official Instagram account with the caption reading ‘#banned…sry @nba didn’t realize there were branding issues wit da logo #iPUToN.’ The image showed the logo had been shaved off completely leaving only a triangle.
According to Sports Illustrated:
Sporting a corporate logo during games is indeed against NBA rules. Item 5 of Section H of the NBA rule book’s extended comments section, which governs “player/team conduct and dress”, reads: “The only article bearing a commercial ‘logo’ which can be worn by players is their shoes.”
The language appears alongside other uniform notes, which include: no t-shirts, players must tuck their uniform shirts into their shorts, players must assume a “dignified posture” during the National Anthem, and coaches and assistant coaches must wear a “sport coat or suit coat” during games.
You have to give Iman a little credit for trying, and you have to bet that Adidas will be sticking with him for quite some time.
