The fact that the Los Angeles Lakers are retiring Pau Gisol‘s shirt number has led may to think about what other shirt numbers have been retired in the NBA over the years.
Throughout the history of the NBA there has been a succession of retired jerseys, reaching almost 200 and producing a good number of curiosities.
The Boston Celtics, with 24, are not only the team that has retired the most numbers in the NBA, but also in all American sports where this practice is commonplace.
The Celtics are three ahead of the MLB’s New York Yankees (21) and further behind are the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens, with 15, and the NFL’s Chicago Bears, with 14.
There are only two teams in the NBA that have never retired a jersey in their entire history. One is the Los Angeles Clippers, who did not even retire Bob McAdoo‘s jersey, the other is the Toronto Raptors, with only a small historical record since 1995 but already with a ring in their trophy cabinet.
The Memphis Grizzlies left this club last season when they paid tribute first to Zach Randolph (50) and then to Tony Allen (9).
There are only two players with three retired numbers in NBA history. The first was Wilt Chamberlain, whose 13 can no longer be used by the Warriors, 76ers or Lakers. The same goes for Pete Maravich‘s 44 and 7 retired with the Hawks (44), Jazz (7) and Pelicans (7).
Michael Jordan and Pete Maravich are the only two players in history whose numbers have been retired on teams they didn’t even belong to. In Jordan’s case, Miami retired the number 23 when ‘Air’ left basketball in a tribute to one of the greatest ever promoted by Pat Riley when he was already president of the Florida franchise.