The Secret Meaning Behind NBA Jersey Numbers..

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While it might seem like the number on a Jersey is just a number, for some NBA players, there's a deeper, more personal meaning behind it all. With Giannis Antetokounmpo rising to the occasion and having MVP years all while wearing the number 34, Giannis finally revealed why he wears that specific number. With Giannis and his brothers growing up in Greece, their parents struggled to maintain a livable lifestyle for the boys and did all they could to ensure a successful career. Giannis and his brothers even had to sell things that they would find on the side of the road in order to make ends meet for the family. Giannis even said, I was selling stuff probably since I could remember, like 6 or 7 years old. I was out there helping my mom and dad sell watches, glasses, CDs, DVDs, stuff like that. Whatever we could put our hands on. I did it until I was around 17, but I was just doing it because I had to. There was no other option. But growing up and getting to this point wasn't easy, especially living in Greece, despite their parents Charles and Veronica being athletes themselves. And the story behind Giannis and his choice for what Jersey number he wanted stems right back to his parents, who he gives all of his credit to. His father Charles was born on June 3rd, and his mother Veronica was born just a day later, on June 4th. This gave Giannis a unique way of showing them his appreciation, but also keeping them close to him at all times. Giannis decided to just take the numbers 3 and 4 and combine them together to create the beast that he is today. And Giannis talked about his drive for wearing the numbers that represents his parents, as well as where he gets his killer instinct when he said, that comes from my family. Seeing my parents struggle every day and work hard for me and my brothers, just to provide food on our table. I had to do whatever it takes. Whatever I try to do, I always try to give it my best and just try to be a killer, because at the end of the day, if you don't work hard, you're not going to get food on your table. With Pascal Siakam making a name for himself when in the finals of the Raptors in 2019, not many people know a lot about Pascal or why he chose to wear the number 43 until now. Pascal Siakam was born and raised in Cameroon with three brothers and two sisters, which was far too many kids to take care of for their family. Money struggles became real, and the family often had to move from city to city, even switching schools in the meantime. Pascal was separated from his family and sent to a private school, where the meals were terrible, and each day he was told when to wake up and when to go to sleep. Since he was separated from his family for quite some time, he holds one of them very close to his heart. After a long uphill battle with immigration, the family was finally able to make it to the United States, and Pascal began finding his love for basketball. Pascal Siakam attended New Mexico State, where he began his basketball career wearing the number 43 The number 43 followed him to the NBA, where he's proven his worth. And a few games after his rookie debut, he talked about why he wore the number 43 Siakam said, So I'm starting my own little tradition. Every time I enter the game, I touch the number four on my jersey four times for my dad and three brothers. And I touch the number three three times for my mom and two sisters. Then I cross myself for God and point up to the sky. I know my dad is watching. With Joel Embiid coming into the NBA back in 2014, yeah, he dealt with significant injuries throughout the beginning of his professional career, but being so underrated because of this had him aiming to become one of the best players in the NBA. Throughout his college days at Kansas and of course his playing days here in Philly, Joel has continued to rep the number 21, and the story behind it actually stems back to his younger days growing up, where his favorite NBA player growing up was the legendary Tim Duncan. A player Embiid is often compared to present day, but when Embiid first came in, he almost didn't get the number you wanted. At first, he was going to choose number 11, but that was being worn by Drew Holliday when he was a member of the Sixers back then. Number 21 was being worn by Thaddeus Young, but he was traded away that summer. Embiid went with 21 and even tweeted, Got 21 back, let's get it, writing my own history, hashtag Sixers. But recently after Tim Duncan's retirement from his playing days in San Antonio, Embiid even reached out on Twitter to pay homage to him by tweeting, Congratulations to Tim Duncan on a great and successful career, one of my role models. I wear number 21 because of him, the big fundamental. This season, however, Embiid switched things up a bit. After missing nine games due to injury, Embiid's first game back will be the first game that he played since Kobe Bryant's tragedy, which prompted Embiid to wear the number 24 and honor of Kobe. On that night, Embiid ironically scored 24 points and had 10 rebounds to add to it. Embiid has often shown his respect to Kobe over the years, and just last year, he told Bleacher Report that the first player I fell in love with was Kobe. That was my exposure to American culture, Bow Wow, Kanye, and Kobe. Sometimes I go to the court by my house where guys would play pick up, and every time I shoot the ball, I literally yell out, Kobe, imagine it. I'm out there shooting bricks yelling Kobe on a busted hoop in Cameroon. Seven years later, I was playing with Kobe. At Sixers Hall of Famer, Bobby Jones, who already has the number 24 retired with the team, spoke recently about how Joel approached him for asking permission to wear his jersey one night in order to honor Kobe. Bobby said that he told him he could wear it, but only under one condition. Bobby spoke with him, and he said, I got a call today from Joel. He explained to me that going up in Africa, Kobe was the guy that he looked up to as the star of American basketball at the time, and he's the player that made Joel want to play basketball. I share with Joel that Kobe, in addition to doing all that scoring, was a 12-time all-out offensive player. I met 11 times, so there has to be a lot of defense in 24 I tell Joel to play hard defense because that's what number 24 represents in my mind. I thanked him for the call, and I'm glad he and I got to talk. With Chris Paul rocking the same number throughout his entire career, not many people know why he chose the number three in the first place until now. Chris Paul's been wearing the same number three since before professional basketball became a reality for him. When he was drafted fourth overall by the Hornets in 2005, he continued the trend of wearing number three from his earlier days. The story behind why CP3 chose the number three dates back to when he was a kid playing basketball, at the lowest levels where he idolized his older brother CJ, as well as his dad Charles, who both played sports growing up, and had to continue the number trend being the third Paul to play sports in a serious level. Chris's dad Charles wore the number one throughout his sports career, with Chris's older brother CJ wearing the number two, which led Chris to become CP3, which has a pretty nice ring to it compared to CP1 or CP2. And Chris was just recently involved in a massive trade sending him to the Thunder, where he continues to rock the number proudly. With Tobias Harris being known to change his number a few times over the years, they actually had pretty significant meanings behind them. Back to this point, we've seen Tobias jump from team to team, starting his career with Milwaukee and rocking the number 15, heading to Orlando, rocking the number 12, going to Detroit and repping 34, and as well as when he went to LA and played for the Clippers, then eventually came to Philly and repped number 33 A few of Harris' numbers actually mean something to him. They weren't just random coincidence. The number 34 actually came from his father, Terrell, who played a huge role in coaching, mentoring, and serving as an agent to Tobias getting to this point in his career. But 34 was actually the number that Terrell sported during his college days in Murray State, then later in the pros with the Albany Patroons and the CBA. And when asked about what his father thought of Tobias wearing it here in the pros, Terrell said, it's an honor, but understood why this year that he went on to change it again. With that being said, this year, Tobias decided to go back to his roots and switch his number during this fresh start. And this season, he'll rock the number 12 like he did in high school at Hills West and College of Tennessee, and of course well on the Magic. But this number actually has significant meaning behind it to him. The Athletic reported that this season, he'd be switching back to this jersey because Tobias wanted to honor his friend and former AAU teammate from his younger days around 10 years old, Morgan Childs, who died of leukemia at age 16 And while playing together when they were younger, Childs were the number 12 Tobias' father, Terrell, actually coached them back during these early days, and he talked about this saying, when Harrison Childs were kids, they would brag a lot about how they were going to play in the NBA. I used to mess with them saying, y'all have to do a whole lot to play in the NBA. But Morgan passed away, and Tobias put him on his shoulders and said, I'm going to carry out that dream. Terrell even talked about when Tobias went to Morgan's funeral, he told him what was going to happen. Terrell said, he looked at me and said that he was going to make it to the top and he was going to do it wearing Morgan's number 12 He knew how much Morgan loved the game, and he made a promise to keep his spirit with him always. Tobias posted on Instagram stories that this was a way of having Morgan's spirit always out there on the court with him. Anthony Davis has been making a name for himself ever since he had a ridiculous growth spurt in high school, and he's carried that all the way throughout his college days at Kentucky and into the NBA. With him growing up in Chicago, it's safe to say Michael Jordan played a huge role on his inspiration for wearing the number 23 as a kid, in high school and college and into the NBA. But back when Davis was in high school, he won a Black History Month trivia contest where he was awarded the $10 gift card, which he used to buy a book of his favorite player to watch, LeBron James. AD was actually a huge LeBron fan growing up and idolized both him and Jordan. Immediately after getting his wish granted to be traded to the Lakers, it had to be a surreal feeling to team up with one of the same players that influenced him in a young age. And Anthony talked about this saying, it was cool, I always looked up to him. As a kid, James and Michael Jordan were the two guys I admired. I didn't get a chance to watch Michael Jordan live, but I watched LeBron a lot after he entered the league and he was the guy that I looked up to. But interestingly enough, after all the crazy offseason moves and AD eventually teaming up with his idol in LA, LeBron actually offered AD the number 23 for the season moving forward. And the plan was for LeBron to go back to the number 6 But unfortunately due to NBA rules and regulations as well as the late timing, the players weren't able to complete the switch until next season. Right after all the news that the guys weren't able to complete the jersey controversy, Anthony Davis decided that he was going to retrace his roots and go back to the number 3 that he wore before high school with him saying, I kind of wanted to take it all the way back to where I first started. The Lakers have 11 retired jersey numbers, but only one single digit number, which is Kobe's number 8 So after learning he wasn't able to have 23, AD posted a picture on Instagram of him with the Lakers jersey on it with the number 3, with the caption saying, taking the number all the way back to elementary school, number 3 And Davis followed up his quote about elementary school with another picture he posted on Instagram, which was a photo of his 7th grade team and him wearing the number 3 with the caption saying, LMAO, found that picture of me rocking that number 3 Think this was 7th grade. Davis of course showcased the jersey during his introductory press conference with the team, and when Anthony was asked about the jersey number situation, he said, that's pretty hurtful to be honest. They sent me a list of numbers and I didn't know which to choose in. None of them look right. I went on like 2K and put all the numbers on me. But obviously, you know, we have rules, and the rule is, I think by March 15th, something like that, you have to make a request to change your number, so it is what it is. But the first number that I ever wore was three. And I put another picture on Instagram of me wearing that number when I was in like seventh grade. So when I first saw the number was available, I kind of just wanted to take it all the way back to where it first started and put that number back on. With John Morant making a name for himself in the NCAA tournament, and eventually finding himself as arguably the best rookie in the league this year, with little being known about Morant up to this point, he finally revealed why he chose the number 12 that he reps so strong. John Morant went to Murray State, which is by no means a college that produces top-tier athletes. But John stood out from the pack and led Murray State pretty deep into the NCAA tournament, which brought a lot of attention his way. When Morant was first making basketball his top priority, he was in love with Michael Jordan, and Morant paid attention to the game where Jordan wore the number 12 And since that day, Morant has been admiring the person MJ was on the court. Slammy even tweeted a picture of Jordan wearing the number 12, and John quoted the tweet and put the number 12, pretty much explaining that's where he got the idea from. When Morant was drafted by the Grizzlies, he wanted to wear the number 12 like he did ever since he first started playing basketball. But his teammate Yuta Watanabe already wore the number 12 John told himself that if he was turned down, he'd suck it up and switch numbers. But Yuta gave his number up and let John continue his tradition. Morant eventually talked about this and said, I think that all goes to Yuta, honestly, for giving me that number. First, it was just him congratulating me on everything. Then we got into the number talk or whatever, and I just told him I didn't want to mess anything up for him. He was like, oh, no, it's okay. If you want the number 12, you can get it. Thanks to Yuta, it means a lot. I've been playing with it most of my life since middle school, so being able to play within the NBA is great. Murray State announced that on February 1st of 2020, they were going to retire Jaws number 12 and hang it from the rafters with two other Murray State legends. The school hosted a ceremony as well as presenting Jaws with the unveiling of his jersey. And after the once in a lifetime opportunity happened, Jaws spoke saying, it was an emotional night. Obviously, I couldn't show it much, but very thankful for Murray and the Grizzlies for everything they've done for me. And yo, dog, if you don't click on this video in the next five seconds, your toilet is going to explode, and I know that you're sitting on the toilet watching this video, so you probably don't want that to happen, bro, okay? So just go ahead and click on the video, okay, dog?