Kobe Bryant's Jersey Retirement: Honoring Numbers 8 and 24

[00:00:00] on December 18th in what was then the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Lakers

[00:00:05] made history when they retired Kobe Bryant's number 8 and number 24 jerseys, making him

[00:00:12] the first player in U.S. Major sports history to have two different numbers retired by the same team.

[00:00:19] Today we're going to dive into how he got those two numbers retired and some interesting facts

[00:00:24] about retired jersey numbers today on Daily Sports History.

[00:00:34] Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide as you daily learn more about sports history,

[00:00:40] increasing your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is,

[00:00:45] what NBA team has the most retired jersey numbers?

[00:00:50] So first let's start out with what is a retired number? So a retired number is a number that the

[00:00:58] player wore while they played for the team and it's usually reserved for some of the greatest players

[00:01:04] for that team that's ever played. But each team has leeway with how they do their retired jersey

[00:01:10] numbers. Some teams it's very hard to get a jersey number retired, some teams will give it to anybody.

[00:01:15] But it all started with Ace Bailey, who had his number six jersey retired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1934,

[00:01:24] where he had played eight seasons there in his career. But his career was tragically cut short in the 1933

[00:01:32] season when he was hit from behind during a game and his head hit the ice, fracturing his skull and caused

[00:01:38] him to convulse on the ice and caused him to go into a coma for 10 days. He did make a full recovery and would

[00:01:46] go on to live until 1992 and live a full life. But sadly, his playing days were over. And the Maple Leafs

[00:01:53] wanted to honor him. And so that's when they decided to retire his jersey so no other player would wear

[00:01:59] number six if they played for the Toronto Maple Leafs. And it wasn't long after in 1933, just a year later,

[00:02:06] when they retired Raymond Flattery's number one jersey, where he was a seven-time All-Pro and led the

[00:02:13] league in the Triple Crown for receiving, leading in receptions, yards and touchdowns, helping lead them

[00:02:18] to a 1934 championship and would eventually be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

[00:02:25] And the Yankees retired Luke Gehrig's number four jersey after he had to retire due to contracting ALS,

[00:02:32] which is better known as Luke Gehrig's disease. And the NBA has some unusual jersey number retirements.

[00:02:38] As the Atlanta Hawks retired number 59 for Kasim Reed, the 59th mayor of Atlanta for all he's done

[00:02:45] for the city. And the Miami Heat have retired two numbers for players that never played for them,

[00:02:50] which is Michael Jordan and Dan Marino, who never played in the NBA. And the Sacramento Kings

[00:02:55] and the Orlando Magic have retired the number six jersey for their sixth man being the fans.

[00:03:01] But the number six jersey was retired across the whole league after the passing of Bill Russell

[00:03:05] to honor all he did for the game. Just like Major League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson's number 42,

[00:03:11] and the NHL retired Wayne Gretzky's number 99. So there have been a lot of crazy retirement.

[00:03:16] And some teams are more stingier than others about what numbers they do retire. Some require

[00:03:21] players to be Hall of Famers. Some require them just to have a whole career with that one team.

[00:03:26] It's really up to the executives of that team and who they really want to honor.

[00:03:31] But Kobe Bryant did something unusual. After his historic career with the Lakers,

[00:03:35] he wore the number eight for the first 10 years of his career and the number 24 for the last 10 years

[00:03:40] of his career. And because he had great success with both, they chose to honor both. And the reason

[00:03:46] being is his career when he wore number eight, they won three championships. He was an all-pro,

[00:03:52] an all-star eight times, and led the league in scoring multiple years. And if you just look at those

[00:03:58] 10 years where he wore number eight, he would be a borderline Hall of Famer. Then you look at the

[00:04:02] years where he wore number 24. He had his only MVP season, led the league in scoring multiple times,

[00:04:07] was an all-star every year and an all-pro multiple years, and won two more NBA championships.

[00:04:13] Again, that second half of his career with the number 24 would be borderline Hall of Famers.

[00:04:18] You put that together, it's one great Hall of Fame career. So they couldn't decide,

[00:04:23] so they retired both numbers, being the first team to do so. Now the question is,

[00:04:29] why did Kobe Bryant change his number? There have been other people that have changed his number.

[00:04:33] Michael Jordan briefly wore number 45, and LeBron James has gone back and forth between the number

[00:04:38] six and number 23 throughout his career. And other players have changed their numbers for various

[00:04:42] reasons. And there's actually multiple reasons why Kobe Bryant changed his number. Unfortunately,

[00:04:47] he's passed away, so he can no longer comment. But he did say he just wanted a new start,

[00:04:51] and wanted to show what he could do on his own in this new era of Laker basketball. Because he had

[00:04:58] multiple things happen as a sexual misconduct case that came against him in Colorado while he was

[00:05:05] still with the Lakers in war number eight. And after the dust settled on that case, he decided to

[00:05:10] change his number. Also at that time, he had severed ties with Adidas, who had used the number eight in a

[00:05:16] lot of his shoes and wanted to not be associated with Adidas anymore. And so he changed his number

[00:05:20] also to 24. And many also list that he wanted the chance to make more money from jersey sales.

[00:05:26] If you change your number, fans are going to have to buy your new jersey. Now that last one is probably

[00:05:31] less likely, but really Kobe wanted a chance at a new start. And he really showed that he was just

[00:05:37] just as good, if not better with the number 24. But arguably his greatest moment when he scored 81

[00:05:44] points was when he had the number eight jersey. So always remember for the great things he did in the

[00:05:49] number eight, like his three championships. But he also wanted to break away from Shaquille O'Neal

[00:05:55] and all they had gone through as it had been a toxic relationship. And he wanted a new start.

[00:06:00] And at number 24, he won two championships without O'Neal and showed how he could be a leader on his own

[00:06:06] instead of the co-leader he had with Shaquille O'Neal in his first three championships.

[00:06:11] Unfortunately, we all know that Kobe Bryant tragically passed away.

[00:06:14] And so his greatness can only live on in highlights. But he was great enough to have

[00:06:21] two numbers retired, giving the Lakers 13 retired numbers. And the team in the NBA with the most

[00:06:26] retired numbers is the Boston Celtics with 24 retired numbers. Now this becomes an issue with

[00:06:32] these great teams, such as the Boston Celtics and in other leagues like the New York Yankees.

[00:06:38] Eventually, you're going to run out of numbers. You have so much success and so many great players

[00:06:44] eventually, if you retire all the numbers of your great players, you won't have any to go by.

[00:06:50] And normally leagues only allow numbers between zero and 99 that may have to be expanded as these

[00:06:56] teams continue to have great players have these numbers retired.

[00:07:01] And I want to thank you for listening to today's episode. If you want more NBA content,

[00:07:06] check out the Dime Droppers podcast, where your host Darian gives you an unapologetic take

[00:07:11] on the realities of the NBA and the world around it, celebrating the love that goes into professional

[00:07:17] sports and the social impact that it has. It's a great opportunity. We'll put a link in the

[00:07:22] description below for you to check it out, as it's a great podcast to dive into even more in the NBA.

[00:07:28] And if you enjoyed today's episode, please like and subscribe wherever you're at. That way you don't

[00:07:33] miss a single episode. And did you catch the answer to today's trivia question? What NBA team has the

[00:07:40] most retired jersey numbers? And the answer is the Boston Celtics with 24 jerseys retired. It makes

[00:07:48] sense with all the championships they've won and the great players they've had throughout the years.

[00:07:53] But wonder what will happen as there's less numbers for new players to take.