Due to the recent situation of Bill Russell's passing, the National Basketball Association alongside the Basketball Players Association decided to make a unique tribute to the player with most NBA Championship Rings in the history of the sport.
This once-in-a-lifetime tribute only happened in some way when Michael Jordan retired and some of the NBA Franchises decided to retire their No. 23 jersey to one of the greats, if not the greatest, player of all time. However, this is a diffent one because is a unanimous decision.
Therefore, the NBA will retire No.6 jersey numbers from all the franchises. However, one of the best-selling jersey numbers is the LeBron James one with the Los Angeles Lakers. Is this tribute going to change the four-time NBA Champion's number?
Is LeBron James jersey's number going to change due to the No. 6 retirement?
Despite the announcement made by the NBA and NBPA states that the No.6 jersey is going to be retire throughtout the NBA franchises, the current NBA players who wear No.6 on their jersey will be "grandfathered", according to Shams Charania of the Athletic.
This means LeBron James can keep the same jersey number on his back, unless he is willing to change it. In the mean time, there have been speculations about this, because he can go back to wear the No. 23 jersey. However, there are endorsments deals made that would prevent that from happening.
This situation alsos applies to other big NBA players such as Alex Caruso of the Chicago Bulls, Kristap Porzingis of the Washington Wizards and DeAndre Jordan of the Denver Nuggets. All of them can keep their jersey number, if they want to.
