NBA Power Rankings: The '90s Looks of the NBA's Oldest Veterans

The NBA's first real decade of style-influencing power came as the '80s were fading. Michael Jordan was rolling out the long shorts and his Jordans as every player in the NBA started to go the way of the G.O.A.T.

Short shorts were all but gone; in came double wristbands, jaw-droppingly ridiculous graphics on team jerseys, complex warmups, maddeningly lily-white shoes, and hair shrinking and tightening as the decade went along.

Some days I yearn for the quirky styles of the '90s, but then I realize why they have come and gone—they were just too ridiculous to stick around.

Still, every once in a while I'll see an old clip of one of the league's veterans and see him jogging around in a pair of Filas or donning one of those cartoonish jerseys and I get all nostalgic.

So, in the hopes that you'd like to take a trip down memory lane with me, I give you nine current veterans and two guys in NBA front offices who wore '90s styles until they were screaming to be let go.

The only thing that has disappointed me while researching this is that none of the guys who are still in the league ever wore a mullet like Dwayne Schintzius.

11. Kobe Bryant's Mini-Fro

There are two things that I associate Kobe Bryant with pre-2000: Kobe's traditional mini-fro, and his early years with Adidas.

Kobe was easily the most famous basketball player to opt for Adidas since Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wore the classic three-stripe shoes back in the '80s, which started up a real competition between them and Nike.

You've got to love the late '90s warmups when they stepped away from the wild styles of the middle of the decade and went with the nice, clean-striped-sleeve look later in the decade.

10. Derek Fisher's Cuffed Jeans

I'm not sure exactly when this picture was taken, but judging by the Hummer Derek Fisher is leaning up against, I'd say sometime in the early 2000s. However, it seems like whenever there's a picture showing Fisher not in a suit, it's always from the '90s.

The late '90s came accompanied with lily-white shoes and cuffed jeans just like the ones Fisher's got on. Bonus points for the knit jersey top of Arkansas Little Rock.

9. Steve Nash as a '90s White Guy

Everything—and I mean everything—about this picture screams "'90s white guy."

There's the strangely designed shirt with the black collar, the goofy-looking smile and, of course, one of the most iconic jerseys from the 1990s—that Phoenix Suns beauty with the sun streaking across the front.

The only thing that's missing, unfortunately, is the fade that Nash rocked throughout his days in Santa Clara.

8. Jason Kidd Joins a Boy Band

I'm guessing that Jason Kidd wouldn't mind if every picture of him with this bleach-blonde abomination on his head were destroyed.

If I remember correctly, it was sometime during the 1999-2000 season that Kidd dyed his do to look more like a member of the Backstreet Boys, so he caught the tail end of the decade with possibly one of the worst fashion trends of the entire '90s.

The best part about it is that Jason Kidd's face hasn't aged much, so you could easily throw a blonde wig on him today and he would look exactly the same.

7. Juwan Howard's Flattop

There are very few NBA players left who rocked a flattop at some point during the '90s, but the one left that wore it with the most determination was without a doubt Juwan Howard.

Howard may be the best player left around the NBA to have rocked a flattop, but he is by no means the best flattop-wearer of the decade—Kenny "Sky" Walker takes that award home 10 times out of 10.

Howard and the Fab Five brought the '90s gangster style to the basketball court (in terms of attitude and look) and nothing stuck out more than the long shorts they all wore along with Howard's flattop.

I have to say, this is one '90s hairdo that I wish would come back for good—not just every once in a while when guys like Norris Cole decide to bust it out.

6. Pat Riley Is Basically Your Dad

The year is 1991. The '80s are done, but the styles are trying to hang around and they're blending into an abomination of springtime and Easter colors as far as the eye can see. This led to every man in America who was in his prime during the '80s transitioning into being older, but still wanting to seem young.

This is the result.

Pat Riley is rocking a decent-looking white polo and everything looks good—until you see the thing tucked arbitrarily into what looks like a pair of blue warmup pants.

Thankfully, Riley sticks to suits these days when he's in public, otherwise he could have turned into Al Davis quicker than you can say "jogging suit."

5. Michael Jordan, Embodiment of the '90s

What is there to say about the shirt that Michael Jordan is wearing for this magazine shoot that it doesn't already say itself? Seriously, no sports star should ever wear anything this loud, but those were the days.

The early '90s, as with Pat Riley's dad gear, were accompanied by bright, cheery, springtime colors plastered across everything—including the greatest basketball player of all time.

I guess it makes sense that the one sports star that is associated with the '90s more than any other should have at least a few moments of overly '90s dressing.

4. Mike Bibby's '90s Swag

What Mike Bibby's got on right here is everything that 1997 was all about.

Bibby has on the typical style for the late '90s college jerseys: the white stripe down the side and the excessively baggy shorts with what appears to be a pair of Nike Foamposites and a sleeveless undershirt cropped nicely under his jersey.

Oh, and the fade—how could I almost forget the high and tight fade?

If you gave a 17-year-old kid a credit card and told him to pick out something to play basketball in back in 1997 or 1998, he would come out with this exact combination.

3. Eric Dampier and Every Draft Suit of the Decade

Whether it be a lack of information during the decade or just a flare for the ridiculous, NBA draft-day suits were as bad as ever during the 1990s.

Pictured here is Erick Dampier—who is still chugging along one day at a time with the Atlanta Hawks—and he's wearing the embodiment of '90s draft suits.

First of all, the nicest thing has to be the shoes; whether they go well with the rest of the getup is unimportant, but nice shoes are a must. Then come the pants, usually far too baggy to look good with any kind of suit, and always a different color than the shirt. Add a ridiculous jacket that goes with neither the pants nor the shirt and no tie, and you've got yourself a '90s draft suit.

2. Kevin Garnett's Warmup

There are two things that I associate most with the mid-1990s when it comes to the NBA: ridiculous warmup jackets and players jumping straight to the NBA. Kevin Garnett covers both of those angles on this cover of Sports Illustrated.

The jacket Garnett has on and others like it littered parks and basketball courts from 1994 until 1997; whether it was 95 or five degrees, whoever owned it would be wearing it the entire game.

The best part is when NBA teams got into the trend of snazzy warmups and they started taking it to the next level, a completely underrated part of the decade.

1. Grant Hill and His Filas

Remember the glory days of Grant Hill and the Pistons (you know, all 16 of those days before he got hurt)? Well, if you do, then you've got to remember the delightfully cartoonish Pistons jersey and those glorious Filas.

Hill was the first American sports star to don the Filas, and back then the shoe company you chose was a big deal. I'd say he did his part though, as Filas got pretty big during the '90s.

Hell, Tupac even wore them.

It's just too bad that the only guys to go with Fila after Hill were Jerry Stackhouse and Barry Bonds.

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