Style File

If there's ever a good time to be color-blind, it's during the NBA draft, in which Crayola is better represented than the ACC. Where do the draftees' wild suits come from? In the past, many were fit for their threads by Davis for Men in Chicago while at predraft camp. Now, says Davis's manager, Steve Palazzolo, fewer players are coming to him for his suits (which go for $1,200 and up) because agents haven't been fronting clothes money the way they used to. Instead, Palazzolo says, about half the players at this year's draft were suited up for free by young tailors looking to benefit from the publicity. Says Palazzolo, "When someone's making something free for you, you go for it."

As for notorious draft night fashion statements, Charles Barkley (maroon jacket with maroon and white diagonal tie, 1984), Chuck Person (white tails, '86) and Samaki Walker ('96, left) come to mind. Perhaps the most outrageous suit to hit the NBA draft runway was Jalen Rose's fire-engine-red pinstriped number in '94. "From that day," says TNT reporter Craig Sager, no shrinking violet himself when it comes to color combos, "I knew I had to tone down my clothes so I wouldn't clash."