The strongest connection any basketball player will have to a number is the one they wear on their shirt. It’s both irrelevant and critical — surely a jersey number doesn’t affect a guy’s performance, and yet it’s a primary identification.
Refs don’t walk to the scorers table and say, “I got a foul on Avdija.” They flash all five fingers on one hand and four on the other to signify his number: 9.
With 61 years on the franchise odometer, most of the popular numbers have some history. So let’s take a look and see what we can learn from this year’s summer league roster.