Key Takeaways
- Naomi Osaka honored Allen Iverson at the US Open with a black basketball-inspired outfit, red-and-black headband, and elbow sleeves beneath a dramatic newspaper-print gown.
- Calling Iverson a “trailblazer,” Osaka credited him with reshaping NBA fashion and inspiring athletes to express themselves through style.
- Osaka defeated Anastasia Zakharova 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3) and advanced to face Katerina Siniakova, promising more outfits if she keeps winning.
Naomi Osaka brought a little Allen Iverson to Arthur Ashe Stadium for her first match of the US Open. The four-time Grand Slam champion paid tribute to the NBA icon with a black basketball-inspired outfit, red-and-black headband, and elbow sleeves for her opening-round win over Anastasia Zakharova.
According to the BBC, the Iverson influence became clearer once Osaka shed the dramatic white hooded gown she wore during her entrance. The piece featured newspaper headlines highlighting moments from Osaka’s career and flowed into a long tulle train. Underneath, she went from runway to hardwood, sporting the all-black look as she defeated Zakharova 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-3).
Afterward, Osaka explained that Iverson’s influence went well beyond borrowing a few elements of his signature look. “He’s a trailblazer,” she said. “I think he’s also someone that I look up to a lot, because he’s done a lot in fashion, whether it’s on purpose or not.”
Iverson’s impact on the intersection of basketball, fashion, and culture became inseparable from his career with the Philadelphia 76ers. His headbands, arm sleeves, braids, jewelry, and oversized streetwear helped define an era while challenging expectations of what an NBA superstar was expected to look like.
“He’s shifted the way that NBA players dress,” Osaka said. “I also think the whole conversation around clothes in sports and just expressing yourself through style.”
Osaka has increasingly made that same kind of self-expression part of her own Grand Slam appearances. At the Australian Open, she arrived for a match beneath a wide-brimmed hat and white veil, carrying a matching umbrella, eventually revealing a feather-trimmed jacket beneath.
But the clothes didn’t make her US Open opener easy. The No. 13 seed jumped ahead 5-2 in the first set before the 101st-ranked Zakharova battled back and forced a tiebreak. Osaka faced another push in the second set before taking control of the tiebreak with a 5-1 advantage and closing out the match shortly before 12:30 a.m.
The victory sends Osaka, the 2018 and 2020 US Open champion, into a second-round matchup against Katerina Siniakova. It also means another entrance is coming.
“I wanted to play well because I wanted to show you guys some more outfits,” Osaka said. “I love expressing myself through clothes—because I don’t like talking too much.”
