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.
Sources: Multiple NBA players have begun informally retiring Kobe Bryant’s jersey number(s) as a tribute — with Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie among them, changing from No. 8 to No. 26.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 28, 2020
Spencer Dinwiddie was the first to announce he’d be doing it by switching his number to 26.
Everything in life evolves. #26 🙏🏾
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) January 28, 2020
We often search for meaning in numbers. And yes you guys have caught a lot of the obvious reasons…
There’s one more tho, a person that I often speak about but hold private and most close to my heart.
Elijah + Spencer = 20 + 6
Honor your ppl, love you son 🤙🏾 https://t.co/pVT630bk0F
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) January 28, 2020
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.
Requests by current NBA players to change from No. 8 or No. 24 to a new number in tribute to Kobe Bryant, like the Nets' Spencer Dinwiddie just did, will be reviewed by the NBA on a case-by-case basis, according to a source briefed on the process
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 28, 2020
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.
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