After jersey change is blocked, Anthony Davis announces he will wear No. 3
Anthony Davis wore No. 23 in high school, at Kentucky and with the New Orleans Pelicans. Unfortunately for him, Nike is reportedly putting on hold LeBron James’ plan to give him that number for at least a season.
But no fear, Davis is a quick decision-maker. Later on Friday night, Davis posted a picture to Instagram of himself in a Lakers uniform with a No. 3 jersey.
The Lakers confirmed the jersey number on Saturday.
The Los Angeles Lakers have 11 jersey numbers retired, but Kobe Bryant’s No. 8 is the only one in single digits hanging from the rafters, so Davis had quite a few good numbers to choose from.
The No. 3 was largely unused with the Lakers before the turn of the century but has been worn nearly every season since 2000. Ironically, it was most recently worn by Josh Hart, who was part of the package sent to New Orleans for Davis.
In his initial post, Davis said that he wore No. 3 in elementary school, and he followed that up Saturday morning with a picture of him in middle school wearing the same number.
One other interesting thing to watch will be whether Davis and James choose to switch numbers again. The hang-up last time was that Nike wasn't willing to give up its massive inventory of No. 23 James jerseys for this season, but that shouldn't be an issue in the future with more warning.
If anything, changing jerseys for the 2020-21 season would give Nike and the NBA a second set of James and Davis jerseys to sell — and potentially a second set of jerseys to eventually hang from the Staples Center rafters.
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