Fort Lauderdale, Fla. ? There have been no reports of players thumbing their noses at the league with throwbacks.

So far, no NBA player seems to be causing a to-do with do-rags or shades to stick it to commissioner David Stern.

Even Philadelphia standout Allen Iverson, whose usual appearance away from the court violates pretty much every facet of the NBA’s new “business casual” dress code, said he was ready to conform.

“I don’t have a problem with it,” Iverson said as the season opened and the dress code went into effect. “I’ll do it for the rest of the season.”

The current calm is in contrast to some players’ views when the league announced the new dress code in the preseason. At the time some players called the dress code unfair, unnecessary, an attack on hip-hop culture and even racist.

None of that is true, according to Stern. He said the dress code, part of the collective bargaining negotiations with the players’ union in the spring, was intended to improve the image of the league.

Stern said a big part of that effort was related to the brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons fans last November, which he called “a low point in the perception of our league.” But he strongly denied that explicit pressure from the league’s business partners was a factor.

If the dress code affects black players more than others it is more because of circumstance than design, Stern said.

“There is nothing we do that doesn’t affect several hundred young African-American men,” Stern said, referring to the high percentage of blacks among the league’s 450 players. “But you can’t play the race card here without it getting flipped back at you.”

The dress code also specifically bans, while on “league or team business,” sports apparel including jerseys, headphones, headgear and sunglasses worn indoors.

All those items, including flashy jewelry, are elements of hip-hop style, which the league has embraced in some ways in an effort to appeal to young fans. It plays rap music at its arenas, has used hip-hop acts at recent All-Star games, has signed deals with urban apparel manufacturers such as FUBU and cashed in on the throwback jersey trend.

Some players viewed the dress code as a step by the league to eliminate that influence.

In response to such player criticism, Stern noted that only a fraction of the league’s players have been quoted as speaking against the dress code. He said 28 of the league’s 30 teams already had their own dress code, though some had been lax with enforcement.

The Miami Heat, for instance, already had a dress code similar to the one adopted by the league, though chains and headphones were not forbidden. Heat forward Udonis Haslem had a particular problem with the ban on headphones when players arrive at and leave arenas.

“I don’t see what that has to do with image or anything like that,” Haslem said. “Everyone wears headphones. Does that present a negative image by wearing your headphones when you are entering the arena?

“For all they know, you could be listening to gospel.”

Heat guard Dwyane Wade said he wasn’t sure if there was a racial element to the dress code. He was among players who said the dress code is only a cosmetic change and that “the real person is going to come out no matter what clothes they are wearing.”

To Heat center Alonzo Mourning, the two go hand in hand. He said a dress code wasn’t needed but was “appropriate” because Stern was trying to sell a product and that the product needed to be presented in a way that customers wanted.

Mourning, 35, said he was a fan of hip-hop music but that some facets of that image were not appropriate for the business of the NBA. He said the business success of Michael Jordan, who almost always appeared publicly in suits as a player, showed that image could be important to making money.

“What (Stern) is trying to do is improve the image of the league; he is not trying to run anybody’s life,” Mourning said.

It’s not clear, though, if the NBA even needed to improve its image. The league set a record last season with average attendance of 17,313.