FLAT FRONT VS. PLEATED

Flat front pants are back in style. They’ve actually been in style for a few years but I’ve been in denial. I like/ love pleated pants. Don’t get me wrong; I have flat front dress pants, suit pants and khaki’s. For a night out on the town: Flat Front Pants. For working in an office: Flat Front Plants. For Refereeing Basketball: PLEATED PANTS.When my basketball journey began in 1998, we where wearing flat front pants. These pants where made with a fire swallowing polyester fabric. You’d catch fire if you stood to close to a radiator. Flat front pants where tight, uncomfortable and left scars. They almost made me give up refereeing basketball.‘Men shouldn’t wear pleated pants’.I hear fashion experts say that on talk shows and reality shows. Then you get friends, girlfriends and wives repeating this. I wish they would stop. I think folks are imagining the days of Doctor J and Magic Johnson, with those tight booty shorts. Referees need comfort. All you need is one overweight referee to trump the Magic Johnson visual.I pray that flat front pants for basketball referee don’t make a come back. That would be a fruitless nightmare.