Chicago ? When the NBA unveiled its new dress code, there was so much whining and opining you’d have thought David Stern wanted to bring back short shorts. Or make players wear plaid in an oh-so-attractive polyester blend.

Judging by what we’ve seen this first week, the new edict is about as restrictive as lint. Stern may have come off looking like the fun police, but he’s not requiring anything different than what virtually every other employer does. Less, actually. Guys don’t have to be buttoned down in a three-piece suit and tie. They can still wear jeans and be so hip it hurts.

“It’s nice to have the luxury of wearing whatever you want, but they’re trying to change the image of the NBA. Guys have gotten bad press over the years, and they’re trying to clean it up,” said Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who had to upgrade his wardrobe with some new shoes and shirts.

And if a jacket and dress shoes can help win back fans turned off by some of the off-court shenanigans, what’s so awful about that?

“We can wear jeans and collared shirts. That’s just so basic and so easy, I can’t believe anybody would even say anything about it,” Chicago Bulls forward Eric Piatkowski said. “I was a little bit worried that they were going to tell us that to and from the airport, going to hotels and whatnot, that we were going to have to wear suits.

“They were awfully easy on us. It could have been much worse.”

Besides, from the looks of some of the outfits this week, a dress code isn’t putting a major cramp in anybody’s style.

LeBron James was decked out in a white collared shirt and red, V-neck sweater under a black velour pinstriped dress jacket when he arrived for Cleveland’s opener Wednesday night. Richard Hamilton traded in his customary Rip City jersey for a cornflower-blue suit and matching blue-and-white striped shirt – with his No. 32 stitched on the back of the collar. Tyson Chandler paired jeans with a long suede coat.

Even A.I. cleaned up, wearing a white dress shirt, and gray slacks and sport coat for Wednesday night’s game in Detroit.

“I follow the rules just like I’ve always done,” James said. “I don’t have a problem with it.”

There were plenty who did, however. When the NBA announced the dress code, it was accused of everything from micromanagement to racism. But let’s not forget that the NBA is first and foremost a business, and its image was in need of a good scrubdown even before last year’s ugly brawl in Detroit.

When Michael Jordan was around, he was so impeccably dressed he looked like he’d stepped out of GQ. But as the league got younger and that line between sport and entertainment faded, players started looking more shabby than chic. Instead of suits, you saw saggy, baggy jeans, and throwback jerseys. Workboots, not wingtips. Oversized chains and medallions that looked tacky no matter how many carats of diamonds they contained.

A dress code isn’t the answer to all of the NBA’s problems. But it’s a reasonable place to start.