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LeBron James had NBA Twitter buzzing yet again on Saturday night after it was revealed that the Los Angeles Lakers superstar has decided to revert to the No. 23 jersey for the 2023-24 season. After switching to the No. 6 a couple of years ago, James has now opted to go back to his original No. 23 shirt for the upcoming campaign.
LeBron's agent and good friend Rich Paul noted that it was James' own decision to switch numbers again. Paul also said that the Lakers talisman did it “out of respect for Bill Russell,” who himself wore the No. 6 jersey during his illustrious career. The NBA retired Russell's No. 6 jersey across all 30 teams when he passed away last year, and apparently, James wore the No. 6 shirt one final season to honor the fallen Boston Celtics icon.
As expected, NBA Twitter was humming after learning about LeBron's major change:
https://twitter.com/lakersgold_/status/1680389221654347777
https://twitter.com/ItsMalikelc/status/1680381650981511168
The numbers I am worried about is getting number #18 for the Lakers & 5 for LeBron. 💜💛
LeBron won the first Laker title with #23 https://t.co/73DZ0pVOql— Raquel 🫶🏾 (@SOULbeautifulme) July 16, 2023
Greatest to ever wear 23 🐐 pic.twitter.com/iaLhqDRup3
— FanDuel (@FanDuel) July 16, 2023
That noise you heard was parents across the country groaning because they now have to buy their kids another LeBron jersey because he changed his number. #Lakers https://t.co/9Q82gE56vY
— Mike Barner (@rotomikebarner) July 16, 2023
About that last tweet, said parents will be glad to know that LeBron actually wore the No. 23 jersey during his first three years with the Lakers. At least they can tell their children to use those old shirts instead of buying the new ones. Then again, most kids probably won't be too amenable to this deal.
Whether or not this number change will have any sort of impact on LeBron James and the Lakers next season remains to be seen. To be fair, the NBA's all-time leading scorer has already won two titles in the past while wearing the No. 23 jersey, including his first one with LA in 2020.
