Lakers and Their Fans Give Fashion a Full Court Press

With dozens of limousines in the parking lot of Staples Center, fans with bigger diamonds than a basketball and more celebrities than a movie premiere, a Lakers game is no ordinary sporting event. It’s no wonder Indiana lost the first game of the NBA finals. Teams need every advantage, including the power of personal style. What has Indiana ever contributed to style, anyway? Sansabelt slacks and the Studebaker.

The Lakers boast some of the most fashionable players in the NBA. Unlike burly football pros or mullet-wearing baseball players, basketball players are the male version of supermodels. They are impossibly tall and unnaturally built, and represent a fantasy come true of physical perfection. Because of their height, most of the players have custom-made wardrobes.

Just be careful when you ask them to name their tailor. They’ll tell you, “Drop dead!” Turns out, Drop Dead Collecxions is the name of L.A. designer Ron Finley’s line. He also makes striking ensembles for some of the Laker wives, including guard Brian Shaw’s wife, Nikki, in a drop-dead sexy denim halter and skirt. Lakers forward Robert Horry also wore a Drop Dead suit, with pinstripes running the full-length of his 6-foot-10 frame.

Around the locker room, forward Rick Fox is called the Versace of basketball. He’s got the looks and fashion sense of a model, a part-time acting career and a former Miss America for a wife: Vanessa Williams. Sports just doesn’t get any more glamorous than that.

That extra sense of chic surrounding the Lakers extends to Coach Phil Jackson. Ask him who makes his clothes, and he shoots a derisive look that could wilt the entire opposing team. Finally, he grudgingly admits the maker of his neat blue suit: Jhane Barnes. It’s a perfect match: Barnes is fashion’s textile-design wonk, and Jackson is the league’s most intellectual coach (he even looks like a professor).

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But the style out in the stands is decidedly casual--with lots of Laker gold and purple. Fans wear just about anything to show their support, whether they are famous or not. When Gloria Neri of Porter Ranch broke her ankle Sunday, she selected a purple cast cover to match her Kobe Bryant jersey. More subtle was Christina Daoudi of Whittier, who came in a yellow halter top, while her friend Lisa Moyaj painted her toenails purple.

“We are sooo fans, it’s not even funny,” said Daoudi.

Guys like Michael Blake paint their faces in team colors. As further proof of his Lakers loyalty, Blake, a Scottsdale, Ariz., attorney who flew in for the game, carries a photo of his $1,000 Lakers-edition golf bag and dresses in team colors at every game.

“I have to be so conservative as an attorney. This de-stresses me,” he said.

At the opposite spectrum of face painting, there is actress Dyan Cannon. The Lakers season ticket holder wore a delicate shade of purple eye shadow, an accent to her purple top.

“The gold is underneath,” she said with a naughty smile. Cannon is also given to superstition: She’s been wearing tiny rows of rhinestones on her toe and beneath her collarbone for good luck since the Portland series.

Down in the floor seats, Norm Pattiz, chairman of Westwood One, the nation’s largest radio network, wore a purple linen shirt, while his wife, Mary, wore a Fendi baguette bag, capri pants and one of the intricately pieced Jeff Hamilton leather jackets that the Laker girls also wear. (And it would be tacky to mention that she was wearing a yellow diamond the size of a basketball.)

Lakers fever has even afflicted the press. NBC Sports anchor Hannah Storm wore a lavender suit and yellow blouse.

“It never occurred to me that I was wearing purple and gold!” she said.

NBA legend and NBC studio analyst Isiah Thomas accidentally wore team colors too.

“It was just a coincidence. It’s osmosis--through Magic!” he said, a reference to his friend and former Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson. Thomas said he always dresses to the nines: “When I was a kid, I was poor. I said when I got money, I would dress nice. I always wanted to wear my Easter suit every day!”

KXTA radio personality Vic Jacobs has been wearing the same samurai warrior kimono since the playoffs began, but on Wednesday, he added a hat that was part-warrior, part-Park Avenue matron when he added a fluffy fur hat.

Other sports fans wore lucky bandannas or team jerseys to bring good fortune to their teams. But only in L.A. would a fan be a famous director who stacks on precious gems to cheer on the Los Angeles Lakers.

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Director Penny Marshall emptied the vaults to select items from her filigree antique platinum jewelry collection. Marshall sported sapphires and diamonds set in four platinum rings, one sleek bracelet and a 4-inch filigree cross pendant. The dainty precious gems were lost against her ultra-casual jeans and “Superman” Lakers T-shirt. She wore the sapphires because “it’s the closest to purple” and the T-shirt to support Shaquille O’Neal, who, she says, wears much bigger diamonds than she does.

Her diamond voodoo notwithstanding, the Lakers pulled off a sparkling victory Wednesday. Take note, Pacers. If you’re going to lose, try to look like winners on the court.

Here’s a fashion tip: Lose the black socks with those uniforms. Only senior citizen tourists and geeks wear black socks with shorts. They’re killing your style.

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Valli Herman-Cohen can be reached at valli.herman-cohen@latimes.com.