LeBron, Cavs Looking to Make Game-Day Style a Bonding Experience

CLEVELAND — On the surface, the Cavaliers' late-season trip to Madison Square Garden appeared innocuous. Cleveland was in the home stretch of a roller-coaster season, finishing the season off against a disappointing Knicks team. Behind the scenes, however, the Cavs had something else on their agenda. They were buttoning up the final details of a months-long plan—hatched by LeBron James and Dwyane Wade when the Heat guard was with the team—that would be unveiled on a national stage before Game 3 of their first-round matchup against the Indiana Pacers. 

The result would be seen a few weeks later, when members of the Cavs exited the team bus one by one into the bowels of Bankers Life Fieldhouse, all looking like Secret Service members who were suddenly outfitted in notched lapels, short inseams and boots reminiscent of mid-century England. Each player tweaked the look—Jordan Clarkson cuffed his sleeves, Jeff Green's pocket square erupted from his chest—but the message was unifying. An organization that had endured a season rife with injuries and player transactions was not going to let the past define it. While other teams around the NBA arrived in that day's individualized fashion statement, the Cavaliers walked calmly through the halls in unique comformity while the fashion and NBA world collided with brute, electronic force.

"It's a big story here because people aren't used to seeing it as much," Cavs guard Jose Calderon told Bleacher Report of the attention that surrounded the initial unveiling. "I'm used to it because of soccer teams. Everybody travels like that in Europe—in a suit or something. Sometimes the teams provide them. For me, it was a great gift. You have LeBron and a great brand. They did a great job with everything."

Among the items donned by the Cavaliers were a made-to-measure wool suit (which, off the rack, starts at $2,500 retail), a Thom Browne signature 4-bar cashmere cardigan ($1,700), a standard white oxford ($450), tie ($200) and pebble grain brogue boots ($1,290). Not pictured, but gifted to all of the players, was a Mr. Thom alligator skin bag ($41,000). James, puppet master behind the entire outfit (and the man who footed the bill for all), topped his look off with Thom Browne-stylized Beats by Dre Bluetooth headphones.

According to multiple individuals with knowledge of the logistics, the entire ensemble was selected by individuals from Thom Browne (with input from James). Stylists from the New York-based fashion designer came to the team's training facility in Independence, Ohio, throughout the season to size the players. Things, of course, took a bit of a turn when the team uprooted a third of its roster and added four new players during the league's trade deadline. An audible had to be called to get the new members of the roster outfitted.

Though fashionable, whatever bonds were meant to be formed from the exercise fizzled on the court when Cleveland blew a 17-point halftime lead and lost 92-90 in Game 3.

As the internet is known to do, jokes immediately began to fly.

Almost as if James was prepared for the blowback, the team would double down the next game, stepping off the bus before Game 4 in a darker version of the previous game's ensemble.

"It's cool," a smiling Rodney Hood said of the fashion windfall. "I don't own a suit. It's my first two since draft night. It was really good for 'Bron to do that for us. We got fitted about a month ago, and then when we went on the New York trip, we got our final fitting."

The NBA has morphed into a league where what the players wear to the arena is covered nearly as much as the box scores that are produced later that night. James, Wade, Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook and Houston's James Harden are among the many who frequently have their entrances recorded and immediately disseminated on the NBA's wide-reaching social channels. The outfits range from athleisure to baseline photographer, but they are as individual as snowflakes. Center Steven Adams can wear unironic camouflage with a floppy-eared winter hat and be trailed by Carmelo Anthony in head-to-toe denim.

The Cavs, in turn, have tried to take arrival fashion to the next level with a style reminiscent of that of Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of La Liga. While unifying fashion may be new to the NBA, soccer clubs across Europe have long treated the road as a fashion show runway for millions of eyes.

"It's a unifying thing," said Calderon. "I'm used to seeing Real Madrid or Barcelona travel and go into the city in their suits. It's something for me, when they told me what the plan was, that was even easier because I didn't have to plan what I was going to wear or pack. It's a team thing. It's not normal for me to get a gift like that, but it was normal to do that as a team."

In a press release issued by Browne, the designer referred to the look as a cultural statement.

"This initiative with the Cavaliers is a cultural statement that speaks to the confidence and power of uniformity. LeBron and each one of his teammates is a true individual, and this individual is heightened by the confidence they show in representing this unique, strong, singular message."

On Friday, the Cavaliers, who plan to stay suited on the road for the remainder of their postseason run, will once again roll off the team bus and walk through the corridors of Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Get those cameras ready.