So many players in today’s NBA were raised on Kobe Bryant.
Not only did they look up to him while they were growing up as young hoopers, but he reached out to a lot of them to impart advice on how they should move on and off the court.
Since his passing, players have been paying tribute to the NBA legend in a ton of different ways. Pretty much every team that has played has taken either a 24-second or an 8-second violation turnover. Some have gone through to tip off wearing a team jersey with 8 or 24 on it.
Now, some players are about to take it a step further. Some players who were already wearing 8 and 24 jerseys are planning on switching their numbers and informally retiring them to pay homage.
Spencer Dinwiddie was the first to announce he’d be doing it by switching his number to 26.
Right now, there are 33 players in the league who are wearing either 24 or 8 on their jerseys according to Basketball Reference. It’s not a slam dunk that all of them will be able to change. The NBA says they’re reviewing things on a case-by-case basis.
The league allowing any player to change his number isn’t a given, for business reasons. The jerseys the league is selling for these players have either 24 or 8 on them already and changing that tanks the value.
It’s basically the same reason why LeBron James couldn’t change his number from 23 to 6 this summer after the Anthony Davis trade. None of these players outside of Kemba Walker are really big stars, so it shouldn’t be too much of a big deal.
It remains to be seen how many of them will be changing their numbers, but it’s a pretty dope gesture nonetheless.
Shoutout to Dinwiddie for being the first to take the leap.
