When I was kid coming up in the early 90's it seemed you couldn't go wrong with 32, 33, or 34. Over half the original Dream Team wore one of those numbers (Bird, Magic, Barkley, Malone, Ewing, Pippen, Laettner), plus other recent/current stars (Kareem, McHale, Hakeem), and many of the up-and-coming stars (Shaq, Mourning, Mashburn, Grant Hill, Joe Smith, Ray Allen), plus every dunk contest winner from '93-'95 (Miner, Rider).
Still in any league I played in, 23 was king because of Jordan. Every kid wanted that number if it was there. But 32-34 were the next most popular.
With every kid in my generation wanting those numbers, I thought we'd see the continued trend of those numbers being popular with the next generation of superstars (those entering the league in the 2000s) until they were all retired for every team. I was definitely surprised 23 didn't seem that popular, were LeBron, AD the only big name stars who came in wearing that?.
But I didn't understand the high school element at the time. I had coaches (high school level) tell me they purposely didn't order those numbers because they didn't want kids fighting over them. Plus the whole seniority element,the young studs who might make varsity as a Freshman or Sophomore, you get stuck with whatever number the upperclassmen didn't want, then you become attached to it and often don't want to give it up. Maybe that all had something to do with it too.
Topic: What's the best jersey number? (Read 12366 times)