For the first time in NBA history, a jersey number will be retired league-wide as the league decided to honor Bill Russell's legacy by retiring his No. 6 uniform. Unsurprisingly, one of the first questions people made was what would happen with LeBron James.
It turns out that The King and all the other active players who currently wear number 6 are grandfathered in, meaning they can continue to use it. However, no NBA team is allowed to issue that number to new players.
That means the last player to have worn No. 6 for the Heat will always be LeBron James. Miami has not issued the number to another player since The King left in the summer of 2014, which is why the team would have a plan about it.
Report: Heat To Retire LeBron James' No. 6 Upon His Retirement
LeBron was part of Miami's golden days, helping the franchise add two more banners to their rafters during the Heatles era. The franchise has already retired the jerseys of Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, who played a key role alongside James in those championships, while it hasn't issued James' No. 6 again so far.
According to Ira Winderman of the Sun Sentinel, in addition to Russell's No. 6, the Heat will also retire James' jersey upon his retirement from the sport. It might be fair, considering what he gave to Miami:
“Having already retired the No. 3 of Dwyane Wade and the No. 1 of Chris Bosh, the Heat have not issued the No. 6 of fellow Big Three partner LeBron James since he left the team during the 2014 offseason, following four consecutive trips to the NBA Finals and two championships,” Winderman wrote. "James’ Heat jersey retirement is anticipated upon his NBA retirement.”
LeBron's departure in 2014 may have hurt Heat fans, but everyone in South Beach is still grateful for witnessing one of the all-time greats succeeding with their team. At the end of the day, retiring his jersey would be the right thing to do.
