In the Suns book by Jack McCallum, it mentions that he changed it due to his homage to his 24/7 work ethic.
Per NBA.com: Wears #0 because that was the number of minutes he was told by detractors he would get at the University of Arizona That's a pretty cool reason for Gilbert, no?
Yeah, but based on this: ...the single zero seems to make sense to me a little (even if it's a little cheesy/goofy)... what makes the double zero okay compared to the plain zero? Wasn't George Mikan wearing 99 back in the day? I thought that originally the numbers were only supposed to be between 0 and 5 (with combinations for the referees' two-handed foul-calling and whatnot)... then you started seeing a lot of 7s, 8s, 17s, etc. Seems like they didn't really hold fast to that rule because those numbers are really common now. What number is "too high"? Anything over 55? I always thought Mark Eaton looked dopey wearing 53, but then again he looked a little dopey anyway.
This reminds me of the change back in the 70's when they allowed numbers that weren't a combo of 0,1,2,3,4, and 5 so Dr. J could wear #6. A lot of old-timers were against it because refs wouldn't be able to call fouls to the scorer with one hand. I, in my youth, thought it was cool. Now, I'm an old timer and I do find the numbers beyond the 50's a bit much. And I can't believe people are forgetting the great Calvin Garrett, our very own #00.
he said in an interview that when he joined the bulls he asked for the #1, but is was being worn by randy brown. he then wanted the # which was FARTHEST from the #1. if you move the second digit (10's), the most it can be moved is 9 times before you hit the next digit (100's), so we went with 91. you have to understand rodman to understand why he went into that much thought just to pick a number. if i wanted to find a jersey # which was farthest from the #1 i would either go with 99 which is the farthest numerically OR 45 which is that farthest you can go without coming back (if you think of jersey numbers as a cycle. 1 and 99 are at either end so go with the middle.) just my 2 cents.
Haha wow if that's true, that's just.. pathetic. Are you sure it wasn't the amount of $ Kobe paid that chick he secksed?
Haha! Who knows? When I first heard about him changing from 8, I thought it was because he didn't want to be associated with Mike D'Antoni after that heated series with the Suns last season. That's actually the reason why McCallum mentioned Kobe's new number in the book.
Refs - they need to be able to convey the numbers with minimal confusion. Double zero is generally regarded as 100, not zero, in basketball jerseys. Evan
actually, artest changed his number to 93 because he was inspired by that song "93 to infinity" by souls of mischief....i read it on nba.com a while ago, when he first got traded to the kings. by the way, great song, so at least we know he has good taste.
Someone once told me that in middle and high school most teams only use 1-5 so the refs can easily communicate with the scorers table who the fouls were on with hand signals. Since schools really don't retire numbers they are always reissued. It is not until you get to the pro level where people have to find numbers that are not retired or run into conflicts where traded players' numbers are already used.
I know Vlad Radmonovic was 77 last year (this year I think #10) and Ndudi Ebi was #88 before being cut by the Mavs earlier this year
(Artest's reason for his jersey number I MORE appreciate it now, sorry 93 til Infinity used to be the joint! Taking me back, classic beat...) <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hNHRUzXuq6A"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hNHRUzXuq6A" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object> ..... I dont see much of a problem with the high numbers. Casual fans and part-time spectators arent familiar with a number system anyways. If your girlfriend/wife/10 year old cousin sees McGrady wearing #87 they wont think a thing of it. In other sports, I don't watch hockey so far all I know teams might be wearing numbers 200-999. It makes more sense in football to have numbers standards cuz there are more players on the field at different positions. Not too many to pick out on the basketball court...
