Taking a page out of the Nelly catalogue, Dwyane Wade tried making the facial bandage cool again. Whether he succeeded is a matter of interpration; what isn’t up for debate is the NBA’s stance on the matter.
The League isn’t a fan of the personalized band-aids, and has banned them.
From the Sun-Sentinel:
The personalized Band-Aid era is over. The slogan-bearing bandages Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade has been wearing beneath his previously injured left eye have been banned by the NBA. “We spoke to them,” NBA spokesman Tim Frank said today. “A player can wear a Band-Aid for healthcare purposes, but it shouldn’t have any name or identifications on it.”
Frank said the issue never got far enough to be addressed in terms of sanctions, but the approach generally is the issuance of fines for players who violate rules regarding game attire and game presentation, including untucked jerseys. “You can’t wear an identifiable Band-Aid,” Frank said. “We don’t expect it to be an issue, so there will be no need for a penalty.”
A player should get a sneaker company’s name tatted on a highly visible body part just to see how far the League would go to stop self-expression (and new streams of revenue).
