LeBron James feels Michael Jordan's jersey #23 is sacred... so he'll be #6, which was Julius Erving...


Look i dont get why he doesnt just make a Number his own?

get a unique No and turn it into Lebrons number not Erving's or anyone else's..

the guy is a phenomenon so he shouldn't live in the shadow of others.. .

Thoughts?

Interesting, there were talks a few months ago about that too, though they weren't taken quite so seriously.

Well my Bulls Ben Wallace and Ben Gordon jerseys are irrelevant now, and I guess soon so will be my LeBron one.

Just like Kobe's number change there will be a rise in sales, since everyone's number 23 is irrelevant if this change goes through.

Some of the strange numbers aren't really approved by the NBA though. The NBA wants to make it easier for refs to signal the numbers to the scorer's bench when there are fouls committed - Denns Rodman picked number 91 just so the refs had to make two hand gestures (one of 9, then one of 1) when they did these signals.
Then before joining the Lakers Rodamn chose 73 for three reasons: the 7 straight rebounding titles, the 3 straight titles with the Bulls, and 7+3 = 10, his old Detriot number; however he only made that selection after the NBA rejected his requests for the numbers 69 and 007. There are quite a few more numbers no longer permitted by the league, I think they want to keep players from having numbers above 50 as much as possible.

Saw an interesting suggestion on the comments board for the ESPN article re LeBron's number change, that he should choose 25 to one-up Kobe after Kobe one-upped MJ, that would be a story lol.
But traditionally, numbers in the higher end of their "ten-set' (the two-digit numbers ending in 6,7,8 or 9, especially the ones higher than 19), have not ever been all that commong, and actually quite rare. Andrew Lang at number 28 in the 90s is one I can think of, there was a 26 and a 27 too but I can't think of who they were off the top of my head. Rasheed wore number 36 (maybe still does, I dunno), but yeah, when the number is above 5 it causes the refs to make two hand gestures instead of one, and the NBA doesn't want that to have to be necessary too often.

Fair decision by LeBron, don't see it as a big deal though.

I couldn't care less what number he wears.

I agree that he should have his own number that when fans hear or see that number, they think of him.
He is a superstar of the game and will be remembered along with MJ and many others.

sif.
just got my new lebron jersey today.
i remember reading this a while back though, but i thought he was just all talk because mj was in town at his game (musta been a cats game or something) i didnt think hed follow through with it though. no other number 23's will change though so his point is useless.

ill just stick with my Orlando Rashard Lewis jersey personally

^ My Rashard Lewis Sonics one is better

Very much so, im too afraid to wear it

haha i got a durant sonics jersey. also too afraid to wear it