Naomi Osaka walked onto Arthur Ashe Stadium on Monday night in a long white skirt and a gray, hooded robe covered in newspaper clippings about her, removed the hood to reveal cornrows under a headband and a black outfit unmistakably styled after Allen Iverson’s look during his Philadelphia 76ers MVP era, then won her first-round US Open match 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3).
The former NBA MVP posted on Instagram after the match expressing that it was a huge honor, calling himself a big fan and saying he cannot wait to meet her.
Osaka said the cornrow tribute was her way of honoring Iverson, whom she described as someone she likes a lot. She said her Nike apparel sponsor gave her a basketball direction for the US Open, and she decided to take that literally and give them basketball.
The look fit with Nike’s broader US Open theme following the New York Knicks’ NBA championship in June. Aryna Sabalenka, wearing Knicks orange on the same courts, is part of the same campaign.
Why Osaka looks to Iverson
Osaka spoke about Iverson at a pre-tournament media session on Saturday, wearing a shirt with his picture and calling him a trailblazer. She said he is someone she looks up to because of what he did in fashion, whether intentionally or not, and described how he shifted the way NBA players dress and expanded the conversation around clothing in sports and expressing yourself through style.
She acknowledged they had never communicated before his Instagram post on Monday.
The Iverson connection is specific and fitting. His relationship with Black fashion, streetwear culture, tattoos and self-expression made him a polarizing figure in the league but an enduring icon for a generation that came after him. That influence on the aesthetics of professional basketball, and through it on style more broadly, is one of the more significant cultural contributions any athlete made in his era. Osaka, who has consistently used her platform and her appearances at Grand Slams to make statements about style, culture and identity, has been one of the most visually deliberate tennis players of her generation.
The tennis
Osaka’s 7-6 (6), 7-6 (3) victory over Anastasia Zakharova was her 10th major match win of 2026, the most she has won at Grand Slams in a single year since 2019. It is also the first time she has won a match at all four Grand Slam tournaments since 2018, a stretch of form that signals Osaka is fully present at this tournament in a way that has not always been the case in recent years.
She is a two-time US Open champion. The energy she brought to Arthur Ashe on Monday night was consistent with someone who knows exactly what that title means and what it felt like to win it.
The moment
The images of Osaka emerging from the tunnel in the hooded robe circulated widely within hours of the match. Iverson seeing it and responding publicly on the same night completed the loop in a way that those kinds of cultural moments rarely do in real time.
