Last Night, In Basketball

Last Night, In Basketball

What's in a number? Part II

Digging into trends in jersey-number usage over time

Jared Dubin
Aug 01, 2024
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Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images

Earlier this week, we dug into some of the history of NBA jersey numbers, focusing on the number of distinct players to wear every number from 00 to 99, as well as the total number of times those numbers have been worn. We’re here today with Part II of that examination, this time focusing on how the trends in jersey-number usage have changed over time.

We’ll start with the single-digit numbers, reaching from 00 to 9.

(Note: These charts are interactive, so if you scroll over the line graphs, they will automatically highlight how many players wore that number — and all the other numbers — in a specific season.)

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