Retiring 23

Roz Milner
November 16, 2009

In April of 1997, shortly after hockey great Wayne Gretzky played his final game, the NHL took an unprecedented step and retired the number across the league, for all teams.

Regardless of each team’s feelings about The Great One or on retiring numbers, no NHLer would ever again wear 99.

Major League Baseball undertook a similar move in 1997, when Jackie Robinson’s number was retired across the board on the 50th anniversary of his breaking the color barrier – however, unlike the NHL, some players still wear the number (Mariano Rivera, for example).

So if the NBA were to take the advice of LeBron James, it wouldn’t be unheard of.

After a game against the Miami Heat on Nov. 12, James announced that he’s going to switch his jersey number from 23 at the start of next season and is doing so in honor of Michael Jordan.

But James thinks it should go a little further than just his number. In a postgame interview on TNT, James said, “I think no guy in the NBA should ever wear 23. He can’t get the NBA logo, much respect to Jerry West. So I think his number shouldn’t be worn by any player in the NBA.”

In effect, what he’s asking for is a league-wide retirement of the number, something the NBA has never done and has only ever been done for the most deserving of superstars.

[php snippet=1]

There’s no arguing that Jordan is the greatest player of his generation and deserves to have him number retired. By the Bulls. But does he deserve to have it done league wide? How would a Cavs fan feel about seeing Jordan 23 in the rafters every night? Or a Knicks fan? Or a Pistons fan?

Not good, one would suppose – Jordan crushed those teams during the course of his career and caused each fanbase their share of grief.

Having to look at his number draping in an arena where he was only a visitor can only bring back a constant reminder of how he fared against them. No Knick fan wants to relive the 1993 series against the Bulls, just as no Cavs fan wants a reminder of Jordan hitting a buzzer-beater to knock them out of the playoffs – on two separate occasions!

Asking them to look at his number and remember does seem a little excessive. But at the same time, do Flames fans look at Gretzky’s 99 and remember him blowing a slapshot over Mike Vernon’s shoulder in 1988? Do Leaf fans remember his amazing Game 7 against Toronto in the 1993 Conference Finals? (I don’t).

But consider why his number would be retired league-wide: of the tremendous impact Jordan had for the entire league. Few players can stake the same claim of being unquestionably the best player of the generation, but even fewer can say they changed the game.

Jordan’s impact is felt not only in NBA cities, but across the world. He was the first true international superstar the sport had, the first one whose name was known in countries where the league didn’t play.

“I have not seen fame like this in almost 30 years,” wrote the late David Halberstam in a 1991 edition of Sports Illustrated, comparing Jordan’s level of fame to Elvis and JFK. When one considers his race, that he was one of the first black superstars, his impact only seems larger.

Gretzky and Robinson had their numbers retired for similar reasons – they both drastically changed and enlarged the sports they were part of, dragging them into the future. Robinson forever changed the makeup of baseball rosters, while Gretzky popularized – even “made” is not too strong a word – hockey in the US.

Does the impact and legacy of Jordan’s career outweigh the memories of his career?

The Miami Heat have already answered that question.

Early in April of 2003, before Jordan’s final NBA game in Miami, the Heat retired No. 23, the first number they had retired in their history. Why would they retire the number of somebody who averaged 30 points per game against them?

“In honor of your greatness and for all you’ve done for the game of basketball,” said then-Heat coach Pat Riley, “Not just the NBA, but for all the fans around the world.”

If a team that Jordan scored 30 points per game against can do it, then surely the rest of the league can follow. It’s not like it hasn’t been done before. And it’s not like he hasn’t earned it, either.

[php snippet=1]

The Author:

Roz Milner