Nemanja Bjelica will wear No. 88, a jersey almost no NBA player has had
The Minnesota Timberwolves officially announced the signing of Nemanja Bjelica on Tuesday. Along with that piece of news, it was also revealed that Bjelica will wear jersey No. 88.
This is hardly cause of alarm, but Bjelica will not only be the first Timberwolves player to don the double-8, but also just the fifth NBA player ever.
No reason was given as to why Bjelica will wear 88, but it seems pretty straightforward. He wore No. 8 while playing in the Euroleague and for the Serbian national team. However, Zach LaVine wears No. 8 for Minnesota. Maybe he could get LaVine to change and give him No. 8. After all, the guard wore a different number in his one year at UCLA. However, that was No. 14, which is currently Nikola Pekovic's number.
So scratch that plan. Easier to wear 88, which also is the year Bjelica was born. Problem solved.
In fact, Bjelica is just continuing the tradition of the now-No. 88 Five. None of the previous four had that number as their first choice, either (we are of course presuming this wasn't Bjelica's first choice; perhaps he is setting a precedent).
In 2005, Antoine Walker was traded back to the Boston Celtics after a two-year absence. But upon his return, Al Jefferson was wearing his old No. 8. Walker chose to make NBA history and wear No. 88, which he adorned for two road games. But Jefferson agreed to change his number to 7 -- his favorite number was actually 25, which was retired by Boston -- and Walker got his 8 back for his remaining 22 games as a Celtic.
The first player to regularly wear No. 88 in the NBA was Nicolas Batum, who did so in Portland from 2008-15. Batum had wanted No. 5 (his mother picked that number for him when he started playing basketball in France), but that was taken. He asked for five other numbers -- all of which weren't available. Finally he selected 88 because, like Bjelica, that's the year he was born. Batum was traded to Charlotte this past offseason and quickly claimed the No. 5 he always wanted.
Little-known Christian Eyenga, a first-round pick (No. 30 overall) of Cleveland in 2009, wore No. 88 in his time with the Lakers in 2012 -- which consisted of all of one game. Eyenga wore No. 8 with the Cavs, but when he got to Los Angeles, that number was not worn, but unofficially retired. Kobe Bryant had worn No. 8 before switching to No. 24 years earlier. Still, no one but Kobe was going to wear No. 8. Eyenga all but forgot ol' 88. He was dealt to Orlando and he went back to 8 (although he never played in a regular-season game with the Magic) and his Twitter handle has just the single digit.
Finally, Alexey Shved wore No. 88 for two teams last season -- Philadelphia and Houston. Shved had worn No. 1 with Minnesota in his first two NBA seasons, but upon arrival in Philadelphia he found Michael Carter-Williams had that number. So Shved chose No. 88 because -- and stop me if you've heard this before -- that's the year he was born. In December, Shved was dealt to Houston -- where Trevor Ariza had No. 1, so Shved kept 88. He finally got back to No. 1 after being dealt two months later to the Knicks -- and only because Amar'e Stoudemire had been waived by the team three days earlier.
So in 2015-16, Bjelica will be the only player to wear No. 88 in the NBA. Let's hope he at least embraces it.
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