Kobe Bryant’s number doesn’t mean anything

NBA.com has an interesting feature up that explains the whats and whys behind some players’ choices of jersey numbers.

Among the participants are one Kobe Bean Bryant, who yesterday we learned was named after meat. Could his jersey number hold a better story than his name?

“In high school I started out with number 24. Then I went to number 33 later on. 33 was the number my father wore in high school, so I just switched it to carry on the lineage.”

When Bryant jumped from Lower Merion High School to the professional ranks joining the Lakers, Bryant did not even have the opportunity to select number 33. That number was already previously retired after being worn by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Kobe chose the number 8 because his uniform number as a high schooler at the ADIDAS ABCD Camp was 143 (1+4+3=8), but the number switch was easy. “I wore the number 8 when I was a kid playing in the Italian leagues, so it was a smooth transition from number 33.”

Basically, Kobe doesn’t care what number he wears, but he’ll stab Nike in the back by continuing to pimp Adidas. Or maybe he just wants to remind everyone that he was a high school All-Star. Kinda pathetic – it’s not like we’re still hung up on high school, when we were the coolest kid in school. You heard right. UNGHHH.

Some of the other players participating in the study are Gilbert Arenas (0), whose number means nothing, Mike Bibby (10), whose number is how many people his non-gang has killed, Jarron Collins (31), whose number is retarded, Drew Gooden (90), whose number was an accident, Linton Johnson (43), whose number means “who?”, Paul Pierce (34), whose number means “My Little Pony, pretty pony, she likes to run around”, and Shavlik Randolph (42), whose number means “birthdays!”