Exhibit 5(a)

                                  July 19, 2002

Hibbett Sporting Goods, Inc.
451 Industrial Lane
Birmingham, Alabama 35221


     Re: Registration Statement on Form S-8 with respect to 100,000
         shares of Common Stock, par value $.01 per share
         ----------------------------------------------------------

Ladies and Gentlemen:

     In connection with the preparation and filing by Hibbett Sporting Goods,
Inc., a Delaware corporation (the "Company"), with the Securities and Exchange
Commission under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, of a Registration
Statement on Form S-8 (the "Registration Statement") relating to the issuance by
the Company of 100,000 shares (the "Shares") of the Company's Common Stock, par
value $.01 per share, pursuant to the Company's Stock Plan for Outside Directors
(the "Plan"), you have requested our opinion with respect to the matters set
forth below.

     In our capacity as your counsel in connection with such registration, we
are familiar with the proceedings taken and proposed to be taken by the Company
in connection with the authorization, issuance and sale of the Shares, and for
the purposes of this opinion, have assumed such proceedings will be timely
completed in the manner presently proposed. In addition, we have made such legal
and factual examinations and inquires, including an examination of originals or
copies certified or otherwise identified to our satisfaction of such documents,
corporate records and instruments, as we have deemed necessary or appropriate
for purposes of this opinion.

     In our examination, we have assumed the genuineness of all signatures, the
authenticity of all documents submitted to us as originals, and the conformity
to authentic original documents of all documents submitted to us as copies.

     We are opining herein as to the effect on the subject transaction only of
the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware, and we express no opinion
with respect to the applicability thereto, or the effect thereon, of the laws of
any other jurisdiction or any other laws, or as to any matters of municipal law
or the laws of any local agency within any state.

     Subject to the foregoing, it is our opinion that the Shares have been duly
authorized and, when issued and sold upon exercise of the options for such
Shares against payment of the exercise price therefor as contemplated by the
Plan, such Shares will be validly issued, fully paid and nonassessable.

     We consent to your filing this opinion as an exhibit to the Registration
Statement.

                                       Very truly yours,

                                       /s/ LATHAM & WATKINS