Should the NBA retire Jordan’s number?

Two Thursdays ago, LeBron James -- playing in front of Michael Jordan -- announced that he would be changing his uniform number from No. 23 to No. 6 next season. He also urged fellow players to give up the number so that the NBA could retire it throughout the league. There are two cases of a league-wide number retirement in U.S. sports; Major League Baseball retired the No. 42 of Jackie Robinson, the racial pioneer, and the NHL retired the No. 99 of Wayne Gretzky, The Great One.

Since James’ announcement, people have been asking if the league should really consider retiring M.J.‘s 23. Few would argue that Jordan wasn’t the greatest basketball player of all-time, and in terms of popularity and transcendent star power, he has no rival. But does that really make him worthy of such a prestigious honor?

If the league were to do it, they would do it under the Gretzky guidelines, meaning that it’s something they’d only give to the greatest of all time. The problem with doing it for Jordan is that they can’t totally ignore the Robinson guidelines either. In the NHL, which we would all agree is one of the whitest sports out there, racial diversity isn’t one of their calling cards. They can get away with celebrating someone just for their talent.

The NBA, on the other hand, cannot get away with that. Many superstars came before Jordan who had to struggle with racism and bigotry, and ignoring them would not be appropriate. Players like Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, and Oscar Robertson paved the way for Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and eventually Michael Jordan. Although Jordan brought the NBA more popularity than any other player, it’d be hard to give him that distinction over the people who came before him.

It is for that reason that I can’t imagine that the league would retire Jordan’s No. 23. Maybe if David Stern sat down and had a talk with people such as Russell and Julius Erving and got their approval, maybe it could happen. But I doubt it.