November 17, 2004 9:58 AM PST
NBA gives iPod a technical foul
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The National Basketball Association has notified the Toronto Raptors' shooting guard that using the iPod during pregame warm-ups violates the league's dress code.
"Everyone has to be the same," NBA spokesman Brian McIntyre told CNET News.com. "It's just the uniform guidelines."
Carter told The Globe and Mail, a Toronto newspaper, that the lack of tunes will hurt his pregame routine.
"I like to listen to music when I'm working out--doing all that," Carter said. "That was my chance to really kind of relax yet focus in. I focus in when I have music on."
Music is in Carter's blood. According to the his Web site, he plays the saxophone and was a drum major in his high-school band.
Thus far, most bans of the increasingly fashionable device have regarded security concerns, not dress codes.
In any case, the Canadian paper noted that Carter can ill afford to suffer a further blow to his stride--the all-star is averaging eight fewer points per game than he did last season.
John Lashway, vice president of communications for the Raptors, said the iPod ban applies only to the warm-up just prior to the game and that Carter could still listen to his iPod in practice or earlier on game days.
But Carter can't escape the ban by shifting to another type of music device, McIntyre warned.
"We're not focusing strictly on the iPod," McIntryre said. "It could be anybody."
See more CNET content tagged:
Apple iPod,
Apple Computer
The ban was for any music device and it just so happens that Carter's was an iPod. Given the iPod's current popularity, I can't help but think that sometimes writers intentionally misuse such trademarks to lure in readers, when really, the product has little to do with the article's context.
Personally, I read CNET everyday, and don't think such tactics are trully necessary to bring me back to the site.
Just a thought.
http://img90.exs.cx/img90/2047/news5.jpg
practicing lately?!
Your headline of your article implied that there was an organized
effort to ban, or discourage the use of iPods, when in fact it
really had nothing to do with iPods.