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?

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