The Best Looks From the 2024 NBA Draft

The 2024 NBA Draft is officially underway in Brooklyn, with a roster of hopefuls descending upon Barclays Center—waiting with bated breath to hear their names called by NBA commissioner Adam Silver.

For decades, it was the actual draft that garnered widespread attention: Would the Chicago Bulls sign a 7-foot center in 1984, as they hoped? (No, they'd have to settle for a 6'6" Michael Jordan.) Would the hype surrounding an 18-year-old LeBron James in 2003 ring true come draft night with a number one pick? (Yes, and the hype has understandably endured for more than 20 years.) Fast forward to 2024 though, and the NBA is not only a behemoth of athleticism, but one of fashion, too.

While professional basketball players have a long history of imbuing the league with style (think: Walt “Clyde” Frazier's iconic fur coats, Allen Iverson's diamond medallions, and pretty much everything Dennis Rodman wore from 1995–1998) around 2009, things took a sharp turn towards capital-F fashion. On the heels of a notoriously controversial dress code implemented a few years prior, players like Amar'e Stoudemire, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Paul began tapping stylist to get them game-day ready. (Chief among them at the time was Rachel Johnson, Stoudemire's then stylist, who is considered the godmother of the modern NBA fashion boom.) Soon NBA players were sitting front row at Paris Fashion Week and arriving to the locker room in head-to-to designer looks—there fashion choices lighting social media ablaze on accounts like LeagueFits. What's now known as the tunnel walk phenomenon quickly trickled down to NBA hopefuls. (It has steadily expanded to nearly ever other professional sports league; see: the 2024 WNBA Draft.)

Once a sea of Sunday best suits (some of them painfully oversized in the early aughts), the NBA Draft is now a bastion of personal style.

Last night marked round one of this year’s draft, during which number five pick Ron Holland II wore a bespoke Versace suit marked by a crystal, croc-effect blazer, and Robert Dillingham, the number eight pick, opted for a custom beaded suit by Seventh Heaven.

Ahead, the best looks at the 2024 NBA Draft thus far—with more to come tonight when round two kicks off.