Tag: Retired jerseys

The NBA should make Bill Russell Day a thing now that they’ve officially retired his number

The NBA can continue to honor Bill Russell’s legacy with a day all about him

The NBA just pulled out the biggest honor possible for one of the game’s biggest legends in Bill Russell.

News of Russell’s death a couple of weeks ago reverberated around the NBA world. Everyone pulled out their best Bill Russell stories and shared some of his brightest moments all across the internet to honor him.

Now, the NBA is doing the same thing in their own very special way.

The league has decided no one will ever wear Russell’s number 6 again. It is officially retired for every single team across the league, according to The Athletic’s Shams Charania.

Players currently wearing it will be grandfathered in, so they won’t have to change numbers. But no future players will be able to wear it.

That’s a pretty awesome thing, man. You absolutely love to see a legend like Russell be honored in this way.

While we’re at it, though, let’s keep the party going. Russell was huge — not just on the court, but off of it, too. He changed lives in so many different ways and he should be honored in that same manner.

The NBA should give him a Bill Russell Day — the same way Major League Baseball gives Jackie Robinson a day.

There should be a time — just for a single day — where everyone rocks the number 6 on their jerseys to honor the legend Russell was.

I’ve got a few ideas on how they can do it. Let’s talk about it.

Boston has retired 22 jersey numbers – these are the players so honored

It’s no coincidence this team has the most retired jersey numbers with 17 banners hanging alongside them.

There are no teams in the history of the NBA to have more titles than the Boston Celtics — at least not yet — so it makes sense there are no other franchises with more retired numbers to honor the players over the decades who earned and hung those banners.

In fact, there are no teams in any sport with more retired jersey numbers at 22 overall, a reflection of the excellence behind the Celtics mystique built by franchise architect Red Auerbach. From his signing with the team as coach and general manager onward, Boston became one of the premier teams of the greatest basketball league on the planet.

But who were the players for which those jerseys were retired? Let’s take a look at them all.

NBA players are retiring Kobe Bryant’s jersey numbers to pay their respects

This is a pretty cool way to honor Kobe Bryant.

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.

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