What's in a number?
Part I of a deep dive on the history of NBA jersey numbers
Around this time last offseason, I wrote a post called, “What’s in a name?” It was about the recent rise of players using generational suffixes like Jr., Sr., II, III, and IV in their officially listed names. In the last decade, usage of those suffixes had gotten more than SIX TIMES larger, as we went from just six players using suffixes during the 2013-14 season (1.09% of all players that year) to 39 players (6.86%) during the 2022-23 campaign.
I’m back here now with another, similar topic. This time, we’re digging into jersey numbers. And we’re not just going back to 2013, but instead all the way back to the 1979-80 season, covering the entirety of the three-point era.
Thanks to some help from Krishna Narsu and Sravan Pannala, I was able to compile a list detailing the amount of players that wore each and every jersey number from 00 all the way to 99, in each season from 1979-80 through 2023-24, as well as the number of individual players to wear that number during that span of time. (For example, Michael Jordan is one of 192 players to wear No. 23, and he accounts for 14 of the 506 seasons for which it has been worn during this period.)
Jordan’s number has been worn a whole lot over the years, but it actually sits outside the top 10 most common numbers. It’s at 20th overall, right behind 33, which of course was worn by M.J. contemporaries like Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing, among others.
Shout out to @AOP_NBA for the visualization below, where you can see in which bucket each and every jersey number sits, in terms of how many individually players have donned that digit.
The single-most popular number of the three-point era is, appropriately, No. 3, which edged out No. 5 by one single player: 319 different players have worn No. 5 since 1980, while 320 players have worn No. 3.
Unsurprisingly, most of the top 10 is actually comprised of single-digit numbers: 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 join the aforementioned 3 and 5, while 11, 12, and 21 round things out.
On the other end of the spectrum, there are 12 numbers (out of the available 101) that have never been worn by anyone (58, 64, 65, 68, 69, 74, 75, 78, 79, 80, 82, and 87) and an additional 13 that have been used by just one player (48, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 67, 71, 73, 83, 85, 89, and 96). Friend of the program
(subscribe to , Blazers fans!) reminded me that Dennis Rodman tried to wear No. 69 when he played for the Mavericks and even did a press conference where he was introduced with that number, but David Stern put the kibosh on it.Some of the notable players who donned the single-use jersey numbers are Nazr Mohammed (48 for three seasons with the Bulls), Scot Pollard (62 for three seasons with the Pacers), Taj Gibson (67 eight times with the Timberwolves, Knicks, Wizards, and Pistons), Dennis Schroder (71 with the 2021-22 Celtics), Rodman (73 with the 1998-99 Lakers), Baron Davis (85 with the Cavaliers and Knicks), and Metta World Peace (96 with the 2008-09 Rockets).
In the chart below, you can see the exact number of individual players who have worn each jersey number, as well as the total number of times that number has been worn. For example, 57 different players have worn 00 a total of 181 times, with Jordan Clarkson accounting for five of those 181 across the last five seasons with the Jazz.
Later this week I’m going to look at some trends in jersey-number usage over time, examining which numbers have become more and less popular in recent seasons. There are some interesting takeaways, including when and why certain numbers started gaining or declining in popularity.