In the NBA, jersey retirement is a supreme honor for players. When a team retires a player’s jersey, it shows their high recognition of the player’s contribution to the team, so they have to seal the player’s jersey permanently to show their appreciation and respect for the player. For example, the NBA’s number one team, the Celtics, have retired as many as 21 NBA jerseys due to their illustrious team history, resulting in players who later joined the Green Army often facing the situation of no jerseys to choose from. And there have been many special stories about NBA teams retiring their jerseys.
Aldridge wore the Spurs’ retired No. 12 jersey
Since entering the league in 2006, Ade has always played in the No. 12 jersey. And when he joined the Spurs in 2015, he found out that the Spurs’ No. 12 jersey had long been retired three years ago and it was owned by Bruce Bowen. Spurs general manager RC Buford then called Bowen first to ask if he could let Ade wear his No. 12 jersey. And Bowen showed great generosity, saying he didn’t mind Ade wearing his No. 12 Spurs jersey and hoped he could help Ade integrate into the Spurs as soon as possible by doing so. After that, Ade wore the Spurs’ already retired No. 12 jersey until today.
Chamberlain retired his jersey in 3 teams
Chamberlain has played for the Warriors, 76ers and Lakers in his career, and has achieved very good results with all 3 teams, so all 3 teams have coincidentally retired his No. 13 jersey. The only player in the history of the NBA to have his jersey retired in 3 teams.
Kobe retired 2 numbers in a team
Chamberlain retired his jersey in 3 teams rare enough, and Kobe retired 2 numbers in one team is also the only one in history. He played in the Lakers for 20 years, the first 10 years wearing No. 8 jersey, the next 10 years wearing No. 24 jersey, and 2 numbers have achieved very high achievements, no matter which number retired, the other number will not have the next person dare to wear, so the Lakers simply retired all the 2 numbers of Kobe. Kobe also became the first person in the history of the NBA to retire 2 numbers in the same team.
Heat retired Jordan No. 23 jersey
In April 2003, when Jordan visited the American Airlines Arena for the last time as a player, Pat Riley, in front of Jordan, hung a jersey made of the Bulls’ No. 23 and the Wizards’ No. 23 over the American Airlines Arena to show his respect for Jordan. Jordan became the only player in NBA history to have his jersey retired without having played for a team.
Jazz retired jersey No. 1223
The NBA jersey number is only 0-100, the reason why there will be 1223 this jersey number is actually the Utah Jazz in order to pay tribute to the team’s history of meritorious coach Jerry Sloan. The veteran coach in the 23 years of coaching the team, led the team to 1223 wins ranked third in NBA history, but also the highest number of wins coaching the same team in history. To thank Sloan for his contributions to the team, the Jazz made a jersey with Sloan’s name on it, number 1223, to hang over the Energy Solutions Center. So this jersey we can also understand is the Jazz will Sloan’s 1223 jersey retired.
Lakers retired microphone jersey
Unlike the Celtics, the Lakers, as another great powerhouse in NBA history, are very selective about jersey retirements. The Lakers have only retired 12 jerseys so far in the case of such superstars emerging from the team’s history, and one of them is particularly special. This jersey does not have a number, instead of a microphone pattern, this is the Lakers in memory of the late legendary commentator, the “Voice of the Lakers” Chick Hearn. Starting in 1965, Chick Hearn played a record 3,338 non-stop games over a 36-year period. Today’s common basketball terms like triple dip and dunk came from Chick Hearn. To thank Chick Hearn for his outstanding contributions to commentary, the Lakers paid tribute to Chick Hearn by retiring a microphone jersey, which became one of the most special jerseys retired in the history of the NBA.