There hasn’t yet been a league-wide push to retire Kobe Bryant‘s No. 8 or No. 24, but some players around the NBA have begun informally retiring those numbers, according to Shams Charania of The Athletic. As Charania tweets, the first of those players is Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie, who had worn No. 8 and will be switching to No. 26. Magic sharpshooter Terrence Ross is changing from No. 8 back to his old No. 31, Charania adds (via Twitter).
It’s not yet clear which other players will follow suit and make changes of their own. The NBA generally doesn’t allow players to change jersey numbers during the season, but Dinwiddie and Ross were granted permission, a source tells Marc Stein of The New York Times (Twitter link). Given the special circumstances, it seems safe to assume the league would approve similar requests from others. However, Stein hears that they’ll be reviewed on a case-to-case basis (Twitter link).
Here are more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- The NBA’s announcement of the rosters for this year’s Rising Stars game has been pushed back to this Friday at noon eastern, the league announced today in a press release. A source tells Marc J. Spears of The Undefeated (Twitter link) that Pelicans forward Zion Williamson would be interested in participating now that he’s healthy, which would certainly add some extra excitement to the All-Star event.
- Former Trail Blazers and Rockets guard Tim Quarterman has signed a G League contract and has been acquired off waivers by the Sioux Falls Skyforce, per the NBAGL’s transactions log. Quarterman, who appeared in 19 total games for Portland and Houston from 2016-18, spent last season playing in Israel and New Zealand.
- A pair of former NBA guards have reached deals with international teams, according to reports from Sportando. Emiliano Carchia relays word of ex-Thunder guard Semaj Christon signing with Spanish team Baskonia, while Nicola Lupo has the details on former Pelicans guard Charles Cooke agreeing to sign with Atleticos de San German in Puerto Rico.
Not just saying this as a Heat fan, but Nunn, Herro, Robinson, and Silva need to be in that Rising Stars game. I’ll accept Silva not being there, but the other 3 should be locks. The bias against the Heat is real though, so I wouldnt be surprised if once again, they’re looked over for something like that
I agree with Nunn, Herro, and Robinson. And they’ll probably be there too
Rising stars tbh shouldn’t have Williamson has he has only played what 3 games…
But in 3 games he has already prove to be better than all the other rookies…
I think Ja May have something to say about that.
But what people forget is that someone that plays fewer games can always look better than those that have played all year. The rest of the league hasn’t had time to figure him out yet. He doesn’t have 35 games of fatigue on his legs so far. He hasn’t had to experience and work through the inevitable slump that hit every player.
Yeah because the NBA doesn’t care about TV ratings.
he shouldn’t make it after playing less then 5 games that would be a complete joke especially over somebody who’s played all year, he would only make it because of ratings that’s literally the only reason why smh
Ja has been solid, RJ has been alright in a bad situation. Hayes has been pretty good. Culver Hunter and Reddish have all struggled. Herro has been great, Thybulle has been great too
Morant is “solid” but Thybulle has been “great?” Time to start watching hockey.
Looking at the roster for last year’s Rising Star game, all 20 selected are good players. It may help to be foreign– the least acclaimed were Okogie and Osman.
I don’t understand how you think you honor someone by changing your number away from theirs. Keep the number and show that you loved the guy. The only team that should retire the #8 is the Lakers, because that’s the only team he played for.
We do not need a debacle like the Jackie Robinson mess in MLB. I am a Rockies fan and the first number ever retired by the team will always be a Dodger. A Dodger that died 20 years before the Rockies ever existed. It’s just silly.
After the initial shock of the man’s sudden death wears off, do you think Celtics fans will want to see a yellow and purple #8 in the rafters with their team? Or Spurs fans? Or Kings fans? Or Suns fans? Or any other team’s fans that spent a lot more time booing Kobe than cheering him. Kobe was a great player, but that’s what he was, just a player. We need to stop acting like he invented the game. Honor him, remember him, but we don’t need to change the name of the NBA to the KBA or anything.
How about un-retiring ALL numbers and give new players full choice. Just do the “ring of honor” type of thing in the home arena/field and recognize team achievements.
But these were player choices in the article.