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With the terrific Last Dance documentary playing on ESPN these last few weeks, there has been renewed interest in Michael Jordan’s time with the Chicago Bulls. This week’s episode partially focused on Jordan’s brief retirement and eventual return in 1995 where he donned the No. 45 jersey for 22 games. There is a new Chicago Bulls player, also a first round pick (No. 14), who wears the No. 45 jersey, former Michigan State Spartan Denzel Valentine, and Eric Woodyard of ESPN told the story of how that came to be yesterday.
According to Valentine’s father Carlton, who also played for MSU between 1984-88, Denzel was originally slated to wear No. 23, the same number as Draymond Green, but Green filled him in at a workout at the MAC in East Lansing that his son had other plans, documented in the ESPN story:
“Denzel is about to wear your number,” Carlton said to Green.
“Naw, Denzel ain’t wearing my number,” Green told Carlton.
“What you talkin’ bout?”
“Denzel is wearing 45.”
Denzel Valentine first came out in the No. 45 jersey at Midnight Madness in the fall, in a moment that his father Carlton said was extremely emotional for him:
“I was sobbing uncontrollably,” Carlton said. “For him to wear 45 at Michigan State, that’s the highest honor that a son can tell his father that, ‘Hey, I’m going to wear your number.”
Valentine kept that number with him upon entering the NBA with the Bulls and although the No. 45 is still associated with MJ, despite the small amount of games played in that number, Valentine has been able to keep it without much pushback:
“I felt like mostly everybody was supportive,” Denzel said of his choice to wear No. 45. “It was probably about 80% of the people supportive and probably 20% that were like, ‘Why did you do that? Why did you take MJ’s number? Blah, blah, blah.’ But I didn’t have a lot of people that were hating on me, to be honest.”
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