Brandon Ingram has stepped into his own with the New Orleans Pelicans, paving the way for a brief playoff run with Williamson sidelined for all of last season. WATCH: Boston legend Bill Russell hits series-winning shot over Wilt Chamberlain (1964), Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. Two of his three MVP seasons came in No. Thus, no Michael Jordan at 45, the number he wore for 17 games after returning from his first retirement during the 199495 season, before switching back to his 16. A.D. averaged 24.3 points for his career, including four straight seasons (1980-84) above the 30-point threshold. Paul SilasHonorable Mention: Pervis Ellison. starting in 2022-23, though players who already owned the number are grandfathered in. Celtics Lab 70: Talking COVID-19, vaccination and the NBA with In the Bubble's @ASlavitt https://t.co/ehn699n2iG, The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 13, 2021, Happy birthday in heaven Mel Hirsch! https://celticswire.usatoday.com/lists/nba-boston-celtics-no-3-history/, WATCH: Boston Celtics icon Larry Bird's first-ever NBA game at the Boston Garden. 26: Spencer Dinwiddie, Dallas Mavericks, Spencer Dinwiddie was a strong scoring contributor for the. Twelve Hall of Fame players spent at least five seasons in No. Still, there are some unusual choices among the 101 number options available for players since there arent many restrictions. 34-32). There are 7 NBA players who currently wear the number 18 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. Paul is at 179.5 and is No. He played 19 seasons in the NBA, and it wasn't until the final two that it became abundantly clear he was approaching 40 years of age. But knee and back problems left Sampson a shell of his former self by his mid-to-late 20s, while Robinson was an impact player well into his mid-30s. Please check your email for a confirmation. Havlicek was better for longer, though. McCollum, and Bradley Beal have helped popularize the number. Si vous ne souhaitez pas que nos partenaires et nousmmes utilisions des cookies et vos donnes personnelles pour ces motifs supplmentaires, cliquez sur Refuser tout. But neither Finkel nor Wilks amounted to anything, and aside from two surprisingly great years (before he started wearing No. 8). If you want to add Hank Finkel and Mike Wilks to the list of honorable mentions, well, all right. Wilt ChamberlainHonorable Mentions: Steve Nash, James Harden. Kevin Durant (22,940), James Harden (20,723) and Russell Westbrook (20,315) may surpass him, but he should remain top 10 on that list for a long time. Subscribe to Stathead Basketball: Get your first month FREEYour All-Access Ticket to the Basketball Reference Database. Taj Gibson is the only NBA player who wears 67 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. Andrew LangHonorable Mention: Ian Mahinmi. Stats: 950 games played, 18.5 points per game, 9.7 assists, 4.5 rebounds, 2.2 steals, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, Horror Movies That Don't Look Like Horror Movies. Since LeBron is wearing No. Those would be 58, 59, 64, 69, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 82, 87 and 97. This is because its easier for referees to relay foul calls to the scorers table when every digit is between one and five. On top of being one of the best players to ever wear No. Brand has the most win shares, but he was merely a two-time All-Star. 11, not to mention respectable current players like Klay Thompson, Mike Conley Jr., Jamal Crawford and Brook Lopez. Suffice it to say, this is the only way you'll see him mentioned on the same list as David Robinson and Jerry West. 51. As you can probably guess, the number 6 was Russells jersey number during his playing days from 1957 to 1969. T. There are 2 NBA players who currently wear the number 51 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. There are 6 NBA players who currently wear the number 27 in the NBA for the 2021-23 NBA Season. Now, he will turn his attention to making a legitimate run for the NBA Finals. 27 in Minnesota after being dealt by the Utah Jazz in the, No. Russell is one of 12 players enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame who wore No. 88. 51, Boban Marjanovic will become the obvious choice here. Thus, let's keep this short and sweet: MJ gets the edge because he won twice as many titles, 10 times as many scoring crowns and because LeBron spent four of his best years in Miami wearing No. Anthony has averaged 23.6 points per game for his career and didn't have a single year below 20.8 points per game until his 15th season in the league. Welcome back to the "great players" portion of the program. 8. Theres less confusion. 88 for seven seasons in Portland. Jack SikmaHonorable Mention: Brad Daugherty. The Houston Rockets were quite bad for most of those seven years, but he accrued more win shares during his time with Houston than Yao Ming did. The only other players with at least 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 5,000 assists are Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone. Like Anderson, AK-47 was the only player to don his number for at least five years. 31: Jarrett Allen, Cleveland Cavaliers, No. There are 2 NBA players to wear 88 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. 34. Carmelo AnthonyHonorable Mentions: Tiny Archibald, Pete Maravich, Lamar Odom, Brandon Roy, Jermaine O'Neal, Kyle Lowry, Kevin Johnson, A bunch of pretty good players were No. PG / SG | OKC. Jersey numbers are listed in descending numerical order from No. 2 was his longest-tenured jersey (nine seasons). Years active: 2012-present 42: Greg Ballard (54.0), Elton Brand (109.6), P.J. Oscar RobertsonHonorable Mention: Bob Cousy. NBA Jersey Number Rules? (With Amazing Facts He ended up with more than 25,000 points and more than 15,000 rebounds, which puts him in a five-person club. 1 seed last year. That's a deep list with no clear-cut alpha dog. No. And even if Leonard plays at a high level for another 12 years, he probably won't get there, either. We're only considering the Chairman of the Boards for No. Same as Shaquille O'Neal, Bryant was an all-time great who split his career between multiple numbers. Two of Wallace's four All-Star seasons came while wearing No. Al Horford saw a resurgent season in his return to the Boston Celtics and finally reached his first Finals after 141 playoff games. 51: Boban Marjanovic, Houston Rockets, No. Data Provided By He was the scoring champ in both 2002-03 (32.1 PPG) and 2003-04 (28.0 PPG). Best NBA Players by Jersey Number - Sports Illustrated He probably still has at least a year or two left in the tank to get there, considering he made 50 starts and scored 763 points (thus far) in the 2019-20 season. Zach Lavine has turned into a leader for the. 25. Allen eventually left him in the dustand Steph Curry and James Harden are going to obliterate them bothbut Miller retired as the all-time leader in made three-pointers with 2,560 of them. There are 4 NBA players who currently wear the number 32 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. Pettit was one of 13 players to accumulate at least 20,000 points and 12,000 rebounds, and he did it in 792 games. Duncan Robinson beats out Isaiah Hartenstein and will look to bounce back from a down season by his standards. McGinnis and King were mighty fine players, but they weren't generational talents like Curry. Top 3 NBA Players Who Wear Number 32: Is anyone better than Throughout his 13-year career, Russell averaged 22.5 rebounds per game. He's a better version of Toni Kukoc. As with No. He also won a fourth title with O'Neal and Kobe Bryant in 2001. Kyle KorverHonorable Mention: James Robinson. Nate ThurmondHonorable Mention: James Worthy. NBA players have their way of choosing a jersey number. With a most honorable mention for Elvin Hayeswho was a 12-time All-Star with more than 27,000 points and 16,000 rebounds in his careerwe've got to give the nod to Isiah Thomas here. Rovell also points out the prevalence of No. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. He averaged better than 20 points per game for 10 consecutive years. Most of these guys either already are or will eventually be inducted into the Hall of Fame, but that didn't always make for easy decisions. Like, for instance, three players in the 1950s wore the number '03,' which is different from '3.' NBA.com is part of Warner Media, LLCs Turner Sports & Entertainment Digital Network, *Translations are limited to select pages, Russell set example as champion of activism, Russell's No. Kenyon Martin Jr. (Houston Rockets) This was, by far, the toughest decision of all. Though a knee injury derailed his career at the age of 31, he had already done enough to get voted into the NBA Hall of Fame. Bryant was All-NBA 15 times and finished top five in the MVP vote 11 times. Babe Ruth and Ken Griffey Jr. are among the Hall of Fame MLB players who wore numer 3 during their iconic careers. NFL and NHL fans have strong associations with the number for some of the most famous names in their sports with players like Russell Wilson and Pierre Pilote. NBA Players Jersey Numbers 2022-23 Season - Basketball Noise and rightfully earned his second straight All-Star selection last season. 28. This has not been a popular number. College: N/A. That's why the latter was an obvious choice for the Hall of Fame while the former might get there one day. I have no clue how many players have spent time with a franchise bearing their name, but King was solid with the Kansas City Kings in the early 1980s. So this is where we landed. He ended up finishing ahead of Cousy by 9,750 points, 3,018 rebounds and 2,932 assists. NBA 61: Pat Spencer, Golden State Warriors, in league history to wear No. Malone wore eight different numbers throughout the course of his 21-year career, and No. However, it was a brief apex. We never did quite settle the chicken-or-egg debate as far as whether he made Karl Malone great or vice versa, but the end result is that Utah had one of the best point guards and one of the best power forwards of all time for 17 seasonsand still never won a title. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. With all due respect to two of the best big men of the past 15 years, this was in no way a difficult decision. NBA & ABA Players Who Wore Uniform Number 3 In his second-fourth seasons in the NBA, he averaged 33.8 points and 18.3 rebounds. 6 for the Celtics since Russells final season, 1968-69. The Stifle Tower is keeping his No. Or write about sports? AI was on the low end in both categories, but he was also a four-time scoring champ, a three-time steals champ and the league MVP in 2000-01. 3. As we ease our way into the more commonly worn numbers, fierce debates and painful omissions will become the norm. There are 2 NBA players who currently wear the number 43 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. 54: Sandro Mamukelashvili, Milwaukee Bucks, No. As previously discussed, we could've gone with either No. Similar to Gooden, Grant had the good fortune of hitching a ride with one of the greatest of all time, winning three straight titles with the early '90s Chicago Bulls. Forced to choose one of the former greats, Greer would have been the pick. There are 15 NBA players who currently wear the number 6 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. In four of his first five seasons in the NBA, Robertson averaged at least 30 points, 9.5 assists and 9.0 rebounds per game. The 7-footer from Germany made 1,982 triples in his career, and his "fadeaway off one foot from mid-range" shot was the one everyone fruitlessly tried to imitate in their driveway for more than a decade. 43 for so much as one season, and Sikma rocked it throughout a 14-season career in which he was selected to seven consecutive All-Star Games. Grant was a great defensive player, but he definitely benefited on offense for about a decade by being an afterthought behind those legends. 2, the NBAs Matt Ryan wears No. Marcus Smart is the only NBA player who wears 36 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. The full career is just mind-boggling. Michael JordanHonorable Mention: LeBron James. Now, he will turn his attention to making a legitimate run for the NBA Finals. 22 in Chicago and Oklahoma City, Taj Gibson switched to No. Russell Westbrook is one of the most famous stars to don the unique number. At his nine-year peak, he averaged 19.1 points and 17.9 rebounds per game, including one year at 20.5 and 22.0, respectively. 34. Both are in the NBA Hall of Fame. Three is an iconic number, but I always felt it was cooler to make a more unique choice. 12. Robinson was elite on both ends of the floor, averaging 21.1 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game in his career. Others wore '07' and '09,' again way back in the 1940s and 50s. At 5 feet 6 inches tall, you were the shortest player in NBA history until Muggsy Bogues more than 40 years later. 13: Paul George, Los Angeles Clippers, No. 50. You may see some of these players choose to move on from this number and select a new jersey number, although the league has left the choice up to them. NFL and NHL fans have strong associations with the number for some of the most famous names in their sports with players like Russell Wilson and Pierre Pilote. There are 14 NBA players who currently wear the number 10 in the NBA for the 2022-23 NBA Season. WebThis is the full list with all the jersey numbers worn by Lakers players through the years.