SPENCER DINWIDDIE, BROOKLYN NETS
Change: No. 8 to No. 26
Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie grew up in Los Angeles, Calif. and has spoken about his deep love for Bryant. Before switching to his own brand of sneakers (K8IROS), he wore the Kobe AD Mid shoes when he played.
The defending winner of the All-Star Weekend Skills Challenge recently spoke about why he changed his number as well as his recent experience chatting with Bryant in Brooklyn (via NBA.com):
“He was everything to a lot of kids and I was one of them … “I met Kobe several times, exchange pleasantries and text messages and things and, maybe this is a little bit over-exaggerated but I felt like this was the first time he was looking at me as the basketball player Spencer, you know what I mean? Briefly, told you guys how much he meant to all the people where I’m from and for him to tell me that in his book I’m an All-Star and stuff like that, talk about a popularity contest before and you don’t win things like that when you’re me, so for him to say that, I didn’t need to be selected anymore, because I was an All-Star, you feel me, it’s not just like my family, it was the guy.”
When The Athletic’s Shams Charania reported that several players around the league would change their jersey number, Dinwiddie’s was the first and only name listed.
Dinwiddie has offered to pay for the first 260 people who want their apparel switched from No. 8 to No. 26 as a bit of a thank you for the support.