If you’ve noticed a certain Walker wearing a No. 8 jersey for the Boston Celtics, chances are you didn’t confuse him for Antoine Walker, who is nearly a head taller than the contemporary player of that name donning that particular jersey number.
That Celtic of course is UConn product Kemba Walker, whose choice of jersey number was no coincidence.
In a recent interview with Employee No. 8 — as Antoine was called for his choice of jersey as much as his blue-collar ethos in an era of Celtics mediocrity — with Heavy.com’s Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson on the “Heavy Live with Scoop B” show, the elder Walker revealed the younger had reached out to ask permission to wear the jersey.
“He asked for my blessing to be able to wear number No. 8 and I was like: ‘Man, how could you turn a guy you know [down]; All-Star and a guy that was actually nice enough to even include me in the thought process of wearing a jersey?’ So I was excited that he wore it.”
It’s not uncommon for players to be protective of their jersey numbers — both coming into the league as well after they’ve left — as current Celtic Jayson Tatum recently revealed as the reason he now wears Boston’s No. 0 jersey.
So, it’s unusual for the duo to have clicked in such a way, though Kemba sharing a last name with Antoine probably didn’t hurt.
“I want to give Kemba a lot of respect because he didn’t have to do that at all,” he explained. “Like I said, we didn’t have a prior relationship, but for him to reach out to me made me feel special.”
Now all we need to tie the Celtics’ No. 8 jersey’s past and present together in a most apropos way is to see the UConn product bust out a certain player’s trademark shimmy after draining a stepback 3.
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