LeBron James Announces He’s Changing Jersey Numbers from 23 to 6
By Larry Brown November 12, 2009 - Posted in Basketball

LeBron James, the reigning MVP of the NBA, made a huge announcement Thursday night after the Cavs beat the Heat. He was so grateful for Michael Jordan coming to watch the game that he announced he would change jersey numbers from 23 to 6 starting next season. King James most likely chose the number to begin with because he wanted to emulate MJ, but now he’s evidently decided that nobody can touch Jordan, so nobody should wear his jersey number. If 23 hasn’t been retired league-wide, LBJ is starting that movement, so to speak. Anyway, here’s the video of LeBron James announcing he’s changing jersey numbers to 6:

Many people will likely relate this story to what happened with Kobe Bryant who changed from jersey number 8 to jersey number 24. People often suggest that the reason a star player changes jersey numbers is to boost his personal jersey sales by giving existing fans a reason to buy another one. If you’re reading into things, you could conclude that this means LeBron is staying with the Cavs. Why is that? If he were going to sign with a new team, his new jersey would likely become the top seller in the NBA. If he stays with the Cavs, changing numbers would help boost his sales. Craig Sager tried to slip in that question at the end of the interview but LeBron didn’t bite. Too bad.

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4 Comments
  • http://thecollegebaseballblog.com Brian Foley

    I heard he did this to “honor” Michael Jordan but he isn’t honoring the greatest center of all time in Bill Russell!

  • Gene

    It appears, from follow up information, that he is doing it strictly to honor Michael Jordan. He is circulating a petition to retire number 23 from every team in the NBA for all time.

    Russell was the most successful player, based on the number of rings, but certainly not the best center or player. He was mediocre on the offensive end of the court. Of course, that gave him extra energy to play defense and rebound, both of which he did extremely well. He had the best possible situation, being on Celtics teams that had all star offensive players who took care of the other end of the court. Bob Cousy, Bill Sharman, Sam and KC Jones, Heinsohn, Havlicek, etc. all are in the Hall of Fame.

    Kareem and Wilt, just to name two, were more complete centers than Russell. So was Nate Thurmond. Then when we bring other positions into the equation, we are talking about Magic, Larry, Michael and Kobe, for openers.

  • http://www.thetruthinsportsbymrj.com Mike James

    This is a good move by Lebron he is the best player in the league right now and to honor Jordan this way is cool. Some of the skeptics are saying other things but Lebron is always going to have haters because he has lived up to the hype and for some reason people don’t like that. There are a lot of people that if they love Kobe they hate Lebron. I don’t understand that.

  • sahar

    I understand why LeBron wants to change his number, but i dont want him to. # 23 suits him and i cant picture him with #6 , it just looks weird. i agree with the part where if LeBron would leave Cleveland his jersey would become the top seller, and that does conclude that hes staying with the Cavs. well, i hope he does. i dont think he should change his number, i like 23 :D