FirstCuts: Who Wears Short Shorts?

By Chris Littmann
Sports don’t start and end with a referee’s whistle. FirstCuts, a blog dedicated to sports culture, will cover everything outside the lines, from the games to the gear. Look for expanded FirstCuts content after the New Year.
Although I’m not the kind of fan who rocks a jersey on a day-to-day basis (I think if you’re out of high school and wear a jersey at places other than a game, an intervention is needed), I can totally get down with the throwback movement. They’re always fun to see, and the uglier they are, the better in my book.
[img=http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/1684/larkersshortshortscj6.jpg]
But then we’ve got the short shorts sported by the Lakers against the Celtics on Sunday. They were ... how can I put this? ... a little weird. I can’t say a ton of my shorts are of the long, touching the tops of my shoes variety these days, but they’re also not glorified hot pants. Thank goodness the networks have done away with that in-ground camera pointing from the floor up. Still, it sort of seems like cheating when you compensate with the spandex beneath the shorts -- or in the case of Trevor Ariza, spandex, knee pads and knee-high socks.
Hey, if it was good enough for Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabar, I guess it wouldn’t hurt for Odom, Fisher and Ariza to give ‘em a try. Then again, the Celtics did beat the Lakers, 110-91, so maybe shorter shorts aren’t the answer.
(Thanks to Dustin Canalin for the tip on this one.)
UPDATE: As Sporting News staff writer Stan McNeal points out, the Lakers did ditch the throwback shorts for their regular duds at halftime. So that’s why they lost.↵