If the Blazers EVER retire Michael Jordan’s No. 23 . . .
I’m not sure I could ever look up there again.
I know, for some reason last night, while Jordan was in Miami talking about the 25th anniversary edition of Air Jordan shoes, the Heat decided to retire No. 23 in honor of Jordan. It has even been suggested that the number should be retired, league-wide, the way baseball retired No. 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson.
It may be the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard of. Especially for teams that Jordan beat or publicly scorned — like Portland. Not only did Jordan hand the Blazers a loss in the NBA Finals, he has on a few occasions talked about how lucky he was never to have played here.
I find the whole idea wrong on so many levels. First off, numbers become iconic within a generation — but not much longer after that. When I was a kid if you wore No. 7, everyone knew you were a Mickey Mantle guy. The No. 24 was Willie Mays. And No. 37? If you were a coach or manager, you wanted Casey Stengel’s number. Was there a more iconic number in sports than Wayne Gretzky’s 99?
Today, those numbers are all but forgotten, except by the gray hairs. I have a feeling Jordan’s number will be the same way. His Jumpman logo is more iconic than his number and it will be around for a long time.
I see no reason to honor him league-wide. Certainly, he’s no Jackie Robinson. He didn’t break the color barrier. Greatest player of all time? Well, for now. But since when did sports want to retire the number of their all-time best player? I’ve never heard of it.
Someone will come along at some point, though, who is better than Jordan. It’s always that way. Not sure somebody playing right now won’t eventually be that.
Switch out Jordan’s Jumpman for Jerry West onto the NBA’s logo if you want. I could live with that. West’s had a great run in that thing for years but just about all leagues do a little refresher on their logo at some point.
Just please, Trail Blazers, PLEASE, spare me from having to look at that No. 23 in the Rose Garden rafters. And don’t automatically dismiss the possibility — Trail Blazer president Larry Miller was once the president of Brand Jordan and has a close relationship with the guy.
But I would hope we could somehow retain the impression that this league belongs to competitors. It belongs to the people whose will to win aspires to be as great as Jordan’s. And to honor those people, don’t ever hang another team’s player’s laundry in the rafters of their house.
UPDATE: Can you imagine how well this would go over in Boston or Detroit?
NBA, Trail Blazers | Dwight Jaynes | November 13, 2009
Dwight Jaynes, Michael Jordan, No. 23, retired numbers, Rose Garden
But since when did sports want to retire the number of their all-time best player? I’ve never heard of it.
Didn’t all the NHL teams retire Gretzky’s 99 number league-wide?
Not saying it’s a good idea in this case, but there is a precedent for it.
99 is retired league wide…but hockey is a real sport and basketball is fixed.
But really, Jordan is no Gretzky! Not by a mile!
Gretzky is not an a-hole, let’s start with
that.
Au contraire, Gretzky once pushed a kid into oncoming traffic when the kid was pestering him to sign an autograph. But I can’t blame him, the video clearly shows the kid getting in his way and almost tripping him, which is dangerous for a pro athlete.
I can’t stand Michael Jordan. I never could. He’s a smug, condescending, arrogant, womanizing crybaby who pouted everytime he didn’t get his way.
Everybody sweeps it under the rug that the reason he “retired” to play baseball and then came back is because he was caught betting on games and was kicked out of the league for 18 months.
David Stern and Michael Jordan are responsible for 10 years of selfish, ball-hogging, me-first, cut the check, prima donnas that almost ruined the league. It’s their fault that we had to put up with guys like Spreewell, Me Myself and Iverson, Isaiah Rider, Starbury, etc, etc, etc.
It’s their fault that we now have to sit back and put up with blatant star treatment and questionable reffing.
Let’s not forget how horrible Jordan is at playing GM. Kwame Brown anyone?
Michael Jordan was David Stern’s cash cow, and he had to make sure that Jordan got what he wanted. The NBA was a joke from about 1986 until just a few years ago, when the majority of the Jordan-ites finally started going away.
I really hope the league doesn’t retire the number. The only team it should be retired on is Chicago. I’ve never seen a more blatant example of ego-stroking kiss-assery than what Pat Riley and the HEAT did last night. I’ll certainly not be happy if I have to look at that jersey and that number everytime I go to the Rose Garden. Gag me with a spoon.
Well said! Screw MJ!
Yawn….
Do you think Jerry West’s opponents were stoked to see him made the NBA logo?
blatant sour grapes on the part of everyone. quite pathetic. I’m a blazers fan since I moved to PDX 10 years ago but this Airness denial is simply comical. He pwned everyone. Get over it. All that stuff about what a bad guy he is just Fox News style tearing down a celeb – I don’t care about it even if it’s true – everyone has feet of clay. @don’t feed, are you such a great person in your life? ready to have the spotlight shined on you? no? thought not.
The point of this idea is to honor the impact he had on the game overall, its place in the overall culture. Which was absolutely transformational, and is not being addressed by anyone in opposition. Instead you all attack straw men.
Fact is, this is all just blather, and this is going to happen one way or another. If it doesn’t happen officially it will happen socially within the player circles. Anyone who wears 23 will become a target.
But I do have to add, since you’re such all a bunch of whiners, I’m going to enjoy it a little more knowing it annoys you.
One more Jordan slam in your faces, posterizing you all for history to laugh at.
My life is an open book sir. I’ve never done anything to harm anyone, I certainly never made a profit off of gambling on my fellow employees or the people writing my check. Pete Rose did the same thing and isn’t being let into the baseball hall of fame, yet when Jordan does it, everyone looks the other way. It’s rather pathetic. Are there some sour grapes here? Most definitely. Does that make anything I said less true? Not necessarily.
They retired that number years ago, not last night
I understand that, but why was Pat Riley sucking up to Jordan last night? Why did the HEAT retire Jordan’s number in the first place? It’s ridiculous.
I agree with your sentiment Dwight.
Jordan is no Gretzky, LMFAO!!!!! of course everyone from portland hates jordan, because he owns you. And yes dwight he is the best player ever and ALWAYS will be. for now? what is lebrick james going to take his spot? JOKE. please learn the game sir.
Now, by “owns” do you mean having the refs in his back pocket for 12 years? Because if so, then yes, you’re correct.
I don’t think they were in his back pocket…I think they were on a mob payroll! Seriously! One of them went to jail for it!!!
I don’t think everyone in Portland hates Jordan but the people that do mostly hate him for his arrogance and smugness. I don’t hate Phil Jackson for winning I hate him because he makes snide comments about the city I grew up in. There are plenty of athletes I admire that play for other teams.
Bill Russell is the greatest basketball player to ever live and if you want to argue I got 14 reasons
(11 rings (2 as a coach), 2 NCAA championships, and a gold medal)
He was also a man of integrity, who stood up for what he believed in, even when it vilified him in the city he played for.
Michael Jordan sold sneakers and underwear.
Argument over and hell no his damn number shouldn’t be retired. He should be retired to obscurity.
Portland had it’s chance to retire #23 but instead settled for #22….
Is that a bad thing?
Hummm….M.J. or Clyde? M.J. hands down.
in your opinion
in public opinion…
don’t feed the trolls would be loving mj if the blazers had a brain and actually drafted him. Instead he is just a jelous hater with his blazers goggles on!
“I had a friend who had a top pick in the 84 draft and I told him you got to tak Jordan and he said but we need a center, my reply was well play jordan at center!” – bob knight to jack ramsey
Wrong sir. Hindsight is always 20/20, that’s true, but the FACT is that Portland needed a center, not another SG. Drexler was the 2nd best SG in the league in the “Jordan Era.” Portland was banking on getting Olajuwan, but that didn’t work out. Like it or not Bowie was a good player in college, and that’s why Portland took him. It’s easy to go back and say it was the worst draft pick taken in the history of the league…now. Back then it wasn’t as easy to say, until Bowie started getting hurt.
All that said, I wouldn’t trade the time I spent watching Porter, Drexler, Duck, Kersey, and Buck (whom would NOT have been a Blazer had it not been for Bowie), for the chance to have Jordan as a Blazer. You’re speculating on what ifs here. There is absolutely NO guarantee that Jordan would have been the same player in Portland that he was in Chicago. What really hurt Portland back in the day, more so than the Jordan/Bowie debacle, was Sabonis not coming over when he was drafted. There would have been multiple championship banners at the Rose Garden if he had played with the 89-93 Blazers. Again, hindsight is 20/20.
Sabonis??? That was the missing link to a championship??? I don’t want MJ’s number retired league-wide, and I don’t necessarily like him as a person (but then I wouldn’t want my life under a microscope either), but there is no way I am mentioning Sabonis in the same breath as MJ in the same sentence regarding basketball players. Good Lord, get a grip. The guy was the one of the top 5 players ever, and it would be hard to argue otherwise.
1.) I’m talking about Sabonis 1986, not 1998.
2.) I wasn’t comparing Sabonis to Jordan, don’t put words in my mouth.
If you can find footage of him prior to his knee surgeries (before he finally came to Portland), you’d see one of the best passing centers of all time in the world. No joke. I guarantee had Sabonis played in Portland from the time he was drafted, the Blazers would have at least 2 championships, maybe 3. He was that good. You’re probably too young to know that, so I won’t hold it against you, but ask anybody old enough to remember what his real game was like and they’ll all tell you the same. He could run, he could shoot with range, he could pass, he was extremely athletic, and he could finish around the rim with the best of them. The Sabonis we had in the late 90′s was a shell of his former self, but still a hell of a passer/shooter.
Hey Troll,
you obviously never saw sabonis with good ankles, because yes, that was the missing link.
yes wow it was the refs!!!! you”re a JOKE!! its always the refs! TYPICAL BLAZER FAN!
and it’s wrong that I’m a typical blazer fan? I for one am damn proud of that.
Please, Larry Miller, do not retire MJ’s uniform in Portland. Tell me you wouldn’t make Martell Webster change uniform numbers in mid-season! I don’t really understand why any team not named the Bulls would do such a thing.
feed the trolls you are wrong sir! that high in the draft you don’t draft based on need you draft the BEST PLAYER AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!!! even your so called genius kp could tell you that! thats how portland got themselves in that postion in the first place, with you”re little statement of “we needed a center” STUPID, STUPID, STUPID! thats like saying d wade was in the draft this year but we are gonna pass on him for richard jefferson cause we already have roy at the 2 and we need a small forward. LEARN THE GAME!
You need to loosen your panties little one. Are you saying that Oden was a better player than Durant? I hate to go into that because we made the best choice drafting Oden, but Durant was clearly a better player at the time. I’m not saying Bowie was a good pick. You’re putting words in my mouth. It’s easy for you to say pick the best player available now, but obviously that doesn’t always happen now does it? Was Bargnani better than Aldridge, Roy, or Gay? Nope, but he went first. It was a different time, with different personell. There is absolutely NO reason for you to attack me personally for expressing my opinion. If you can’t have intelligent conversation, then we’re done here. Mmmkay pumpkin?
I’m not sure why you don’t understand that most of the refs were paid off at that time! One on them went to jail for it! Jordan is kinda like Bonds! He was the best…but he was a cheater! Learn your history!
Drexler was a proven commodity at the time.
Just retire No. 45. Jordan wore that for a season.
Retire Jordan’s 45 jersey.
All the Jordan worhip makes me want to puke. Will it ever temper down? Yes, he was very good. His numbers should stay in Chicago though.
Jordan was the greatest NBA basketball player of all time. I didn’t care for him personally, but you c’mon, “very good” he won six championship.
Bill Russell won 11. Wilt Chamberlain was a beast amonst boys and could do anything he wanted to do on the court…unless Russell was playing. It’s too arbitrary to get into the whole “greatest of all time” debate. Jordan was good, the best in his era, but there’s no way to tell if he was the best of all time.
Jordan is a world class jerk. His HOF speech is proof enough. That was one of the most classless things I have ever seen. I’m not sure whose ass Pat Riley is trying to kiss with this lame stunt. Jordan isn’t in the same league as Gretzky or JR. Not even close.
This is the most insane thing I have ever heard of!!!!
umm…. the heat have had MJ’s jersey retired since 03. When he retired from the Wizards. There were articles about it then. This is NOT a new story people
The single, most idiotic proposal in the history of lame suggestions.
We could also start a ten-step program for knucklehead narcissists who want to retire #23 jerseys for all NBA teams
No way in hell we should retire his jersey here. He took some personal shots at this town that should never be forgotten.
It doesn’t take away his greatness as a player, but it would be disrespectful to the people of Portland if we hung a Portland haters jersey…
One more thing…as great as Jordan was, the players who had the most impact ever for the NBA was Bird/Magic. The literally ressurected the league and took the interest level to unforseen heights.
If any players should be honored by both players and fans, it is those 2
The only jerseys that should hang in our building is blazer ones
did someome just compare clyde to mj? woooow some of you need therapy.
and you would know, right?
No one is arguing that Jordan wasn’t the greatest player ever, or that Portland made a huge error by not drafting him. The reason no one wants his jersey hanging in the Rose Garden is he was a pompous ass who verbally slammed Portland many times throughout his career. In short, we dislike him because he is a jerk.
And a normal player who has class is supposed to just tip his hat and stroke our city’s ego’s just for being Portland?
This is probably the most competitive person ever to breathe, and he spent a decade competing with our team. And he’s supposed to like us?
Come on, the whining about his ‘hatred’ for Portland is really hilarious.
Nobody has made a compelling argument as to why we should be hanging Jordan’s number up in the rafters of the Rose Garden. That’s bush league.
If players want to make a gentleman’s agreement that they won’t wear #23, let them have it. Don’t make teams retire a competitor’s jersey number. It is ridiculous.
Iyleleander, I agree he is probably the most competitive person ever to breathe, and no I don’t think he should like us. However, you can be ultra competitive without saying things like, “Thank God I wasn’t drafted by that team.” I respect a confident, ultra-competitive person. I don’t respect someone with a smug attitude who looks down on others. The fact that he is the best player to ever play does not impress me in the least. What impresses me is how someone comports themselves off the court, as a person. We may just see things differently, which is fine.
I also think that individual teams should decide which numbers get retired. Not the league. That also is a matter of opinion. It is true that Jordan did a lot for the league. However, Bird and Magic did even more for the league than he did. If you are going to retire Jordan’s number but not Magic’s and Bird’s, then that seems a bit hypocritical.
I’d agree with you if he qualified his ‘Thank god statement’ with something like, ‘I’d be drinking tree sap, shooting heroin and wearing all flannel right now…’ or some other equally stereotypical dig at us.
But I just can’t see how anything he’s said about Portland can be taken as anything other than an ultra-competetive person puffing up his chest a little bit.
In fact, I’d bet you when he thinks about Portland, he probably actually gets a pretty good feeling deep-down, considering the hundreds of millions Nike has put in his pocket.
That said, I’m with the general sentiment that he doesn’t deserve a league-wide retirement.
He ruined modern basketball by making it into a 1 on 5 contest.
the BLAZERS of all teams should retire his number because they were too stupid to draft him. And since they couldn’t beat him they should honor him.
This goes about lame bitter envy and pays tribute to our Lord Saviour of Basketball, His Moneyness…Sir Money
Then I guess the 12 teams that passed on Kobe will have to hang his jersey from their rafters when he retires? That’s a pretty foolish argument too.
Point blank, it should not happen.
This leaves a great moment though, for talking about WTF the Blazers are doing with all the current retired players.
There should maybe be 2-3 retired jerseys in the rafters here in Portland.
Lionel Hollins? The bazillion other names up there?
What do they have in common? The championship ’77 team. Do you think we will see the more recent Detorit team retiring the jerseys of Hamilton, Prince, Sheed, Ben, etc? No, maybe one of those guys at best. Your more likely to see Isiah Thomas or Joe Dumars.
Portland reminds me of Uncle Rico in Napolean Dynamite. “If I could only go back to ’84″ … The Blazers marketing division keeps bring up 77 over and over. People in portland bring it up like an old man telling the same story every freaking day.
We decide 30 years later to start retiring some additional jerseys? Please, the marketing in the nBA is going crazy. Lets focus on the new.
Heck no to retiring his number league wide….rename the reg season mvp after him and thats all.
couldn’t agree more, though i’m all in favor of MJ retiring his attitude.
“Today, those numbers are all but forgotten, except by the gray hairs.”
I don’t know of anyone who wears it in any of the top European leagues, where it’s not retired. No national team player, men’s, women’s or junior, is ever going to wear it. Kids are even discouraged from wearing 99 in house league hockey. Something tells me that Gretzky’s number isn’t going to be forgotten any time soon.
But the NBA shouldn’t retire 23 for the same reason the NHL didn’t retire #9 for Gordie Howe: plenty of other good / great players have worn it. ‘Other NHL players to have worn 99′ is a trivia point, whereas in the NBA it’s a lengthy list vis a vis 23.
Gretzky’s retirement was an appropriate tribute to the best player to ever play the game, doing so for Jordan would just be misplaced.
Oh, and I agree that they should just name an award after him. Give the MJ award to the leading scorer and be done with it. The NBA doesn’t make nearly a big enough deal of their awards; naming the finals MVP after Russell was a nice start, but more needs to be done.
Jordan was a GREAT, GREAT player. He also was a fantastic international N.B.A. marketing Icon.
Retire his number throughout the N.B.A.? Indivdual franchises that are NOT The Bulls or “maybe” The Wizards retiring his Number? STUPID.
I don’t have anything against Jordan, he provided me the opportunity to witness some fantastic games, fantastic moments. Yes, I know his history. I know some of those moments came at the expense of my beloved Blazers. But it’s still okay. I’m sure Cleveland fans are as tired of seeing Jordan forever hit that last second shot, as I am of seeing Jordan shrug his shoulders after hitting all those 3′s in the playoff game against The Blazers. But you move on…even if videotape and marketing does not.
Jordan was one of the greats. He’s got all the accolades, the championships. Does anyone feel Jordan has been slighted in recognition? Ridiculous.
I know that I think the N.B.A. is still missing Jordan. As great as LeBron is, and as much as they have tried to market him, he just hasn’t yet lived up to Jordanesque heights. However, the N.B.A. needs to let be, what will be. At some point the accolades become hollow and self defeating.
I’m old enough to remember it all. I remember Dr.J, Magic and Bird. I remember a rookie Jordan coming into the league with headlines asking if he was going to be the “Next” Dr.J. He wasn’t. He was the first Jordan.
Will another superstar capture the excitement that Jordan was able to create? Eventually. It might be LeBron, it might be Durant, my point being things move on, often in unpredictable directions. At this point retiring MJ’s # seems like moving backwards. There’s a time and a place for accolades and even nostalgia but in my opinion the mandated retirement of Jordans number would not be happening in the right time nor in the N.B.A. as a whole, in the right place.
I agree with you wholeheartedly Dwight! The very idea that Martell would or should give up wearing #23 makes me mad and makes me wanna puke!
If I ever see the #23 the number 23 hanging in the Rose Garden and it doesn’t have a Blazers name on it I may go so far as to stop being Blazers fan and I have been a Blazer fan since the ’70′s!!!
This subject makes me so mad I want to punch LeBrick for getting this started!!
Didn’t read any of the other comments, so don’t know if someone already said this, but it doesn’t make sense to include Wayne Gretzky in your list of people who’s numbers were iconic for just a generation and then all but forgotten since the NHL retired 99 in the year 2000. 23 is Jordan and will forever be that. LeBron wants the number change because he realizes more than anything he won’t have an iconic number if he stays at 23.
Please keep in mind that this idiotic suggestion came from someone who hasn’t won a thing. I don’t think we need any additional suggestions on how the NBA can further sniff Jordan’s bum.
Honestly, if you ask me, just use the Jordan logo as the new logo for the NBA. It’s all commercial now, it fits. I mean, Adidas might be upset, but it’s not like they sponsor anyone important.
The NBA under David Stern has attained all the credibility of the WWE and its marketing geniuses. Why stop with retiring an opponent’s jersey in the rafters of the Rose Garden? Let’s do it right and bring MJ back to center court and have a folding chair smash-off between him and Sam Bowie. Sir Charles could referee and Brent Mussburger could do the play-by-play. Between rounds, Pamela Anderson could sell hot dogs on sticks to the rubes at courtside while the soundtrack from “Transformers 2″ played over the P.A. system. Now that’s hoops!