Answer: Michael Jordan

Take a gander at vintage basketball photos and besides the old school hairstyles and mustaches, you’ll also notice the rather short shorts. In the early years of collegiate and professional basketball, the players wore what amounted to pretty standard gym shorts for the day.

Today, however, players wear longer basketball shorts that drape almost to the knee. While you could chalk the change up to a shift in fashion sensibilities in the greater culture, we can really give the lion’s share of credit to one man: Michael Jordan.

When Michael Jordan went pro, he superstitiously wore his old college team shorts under his new professional uniform. To do so discretely, he sized up his new basketball shorts and wore them baggier and longer to cover up his old college shorts. Because Jordan was such a prominent and successful figure in the game, everyone copied his style and today players wear longer and looser fitting shorts.