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Thread: #22

  1. #1
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    #22

    Whoa...



    Adam Rowe just reported on Twitter that Duke will give Jabari Parker to opportunity to wear #22 at Duke if Parker wants to. It is unclear is Jay Williams is aware of this, though I imagine he gave it the thumbs up.

    Well, personally, as a fan, I think this is a terrible idea. The number is retired. Jay (he was Jason back then) wore it and performed in it in such a way so that we decided no one else should ever wear that number again. We wanted the image of Jay in it to be the lasting image. Just because Parker is a big-time recruit, we should not change how we have honored Jay. What if a lower-ranked recruit or a walk-on wanted #22? Are we treating Parker differently because he is more highly regarded? That doesn't seem right.

    What if some stud recruit came along and wanted to wear 31, but Shane did not want to let him do it. Is Shane suddenly doing something mean to the program while Jay was willing to be more giving? What if some recruit comes along and wants to wear #25, do we ask Art Heyman's family for permission?

    Look, we retired #22. It is done. I really think no one should get to wear it ever again. Any kid who made this a sticking point in their recruitment is a kid I don't want at Duke anyway.

    Let me put it this way -- if Lebron James wanted to play for the Celtics, but said he would only do it if they let him wear #33, what do you think the Celtics would say?

    -Jason "" Evans
    Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?

  2. #2
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    Very interesting. If I remember correctly, Kyrie inquired about 11, and was told he could wear half of it.

    I see your point for sure Jason, and given what we know about Jabari at this point, I would be shocked if he "made it a sticking point". Doesn't seem like that kind of kid (again based solely on the many glowing articles and interviews).

    It could be he asked if it was possible, the staff asked Jason, and Jason said "I am fine with it". Would like to know more on this one to be honest.

    If he does wear double deuce it will definitely take some getting used too.

    And 32/33/31 are like the Holy Grails in that order for Duke hoops. Somewhere down the road though, unless the NCAA changes their current idiotic rules on numbers, some of our retired jerseys will have to be allowed just to abide by the rules and have an available number.

  3. #3
    They're reporting it's Jabari's "if he wants it." I hope Jabari thinks on it and graciously declines the offer...

  4. #4
    Hate to hear this if true. It's bad to open up a retired number, but it's especially bad at Duke, a program that has always held itself to a higher standard when it comes to retiring numbers. We don't hang "honored" jerseys up there with numbers that players still wear to make our rafters more impressive. Once it goes up, and it was incredibly deserved in the case of 22, it stays up and nobody touches it no matter what. Don't care if Jason said he was cool with it either. I hope that we see this story quickly dismissed as a misunderstanding.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Old Drum View Post
    They're reporting it's Jabari's "if he wants it." I hope Jabari thinks on it and graciously declines the offer...
    Let's just say hypothetically that Jabari uses JWills number. and then he stays 3 years or 4 and wins one or two national championships, and has huge numbers. Do you put both jersey's with the same number in the rafters.

    The number is and always will be Williams's as far as I am concerned.
    ~rthomas

  6. #6
    Dev11's Avatar
    Dev11 is offline Commissioner of Statistics, DBR Podcast
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    Quote Originally Posted by Newton_14 View Post
    Somewhere down the road though, unless the NCAA changes their current idiotic rules on numbers, some of our retired jerseys will have to be allowed just to abide by the rules and have an available number.
    This is the main issue at hand. Granted, we haven't gotten to retire a jersey since 2006 and the state of college basketball will make it more difficult to do so with excellent players leaving early, but at some point we may need to just 'start over' with the retired jerseys. Given that they all are hanging equally up there, I wouldn't want the staff to start picking nits over which ones to make available 'first.'

    If Jabari is going to wear 22, I wish that the possibility hadn't been leaked and that K, Jabari, and Jason had just figured it out privately first.

  7. #7
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    It's April 1st already? No? I still hope this is a bad joke.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by rthomas View Post
    Let's just say hypothetically that Jabari uses JWills number. and then he stays 3 years or 4 and wins one or two national championships, and has huge numbers. Do you put both jersey's with the same number in the rafters.

    The number is and always will be Williams's as far as I am concerned.
    I wondered this as well. I would hope a kid like that would want to make a name (or number) for himself and not be compared to someone else. Unless he has a very good reason for wearing the #22 and even then, I would hope he doesn't. Although that Williams guy does have #22 and #23 up in the rafters so perhaps he can share one of his numbers.

  9. #9
    Quote Originally Posted by Dev11 View Post
    This is the main issue at hand. Granted, we haven't gotten to retire a jersey since 2006 and the state of college basketball will make it more difficult to do so with excellent players leaving early, but at some point we may need to just 'start over' with the retired jerseys. Given that they all are hanging equally up there, I wouldn't want the staff to start picking nits over which ones to make available 'first.'
    We aren't really that close to this point though, are we? I believe there are 37 legal jersey numbers, and Duke has retired 13 of them:

    00
    0 1 2 3 4 5
    10 11 12 13 14 15
    20 21 22 23 24 25
    30 31 32 33 34 35
    40 41 42 43 44 45
    50 51 52 53 54 55

    Even at the rate under Coach K (about one per every three and a half years), it's something like 35 years until there is a real problem (assuming a maximum roster size of around 15). Although this probably presents an argument against the marginal cases people tend to bring up from time to time, I don't think we should be thinking about recycling numbers quite yet.
    Last edited by vick; 01-28-2013 at 07:58 PM. Reason: Fixed table formatting

  10. #10
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    It seems to me that, if this is true, JWill thinks enough of this kid to do it. Jason has already compared Jabari to Paul Pierce several times.

    I say, if it is okay with Jason, it's more than fine with me. But talk about pressure . . . .

  11. #11
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    Definitely against this.

    If Jabari does stay long enough and perform well enough to deserve a retired jersey, I imagine we'd end up with two number 22s in the rafters. That won't cause the end of the universe as we know it (like crossing the streams or something), but it will take away from the "retirement" of a jersey and make all the jerseys up there more like "honored" jerseys. Ugh.

    Tell Jabari we love him, we want him here, and there are lots of good numbers left that would look spectacular hanging in the rafters of Cameron with the name "Parker" above them.

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by JasonEvans View Post

    Let me put it this way -- if Lebron James wanted to play for the Celtics, but said he would only do it if they let him wear #33, what do you think the Celtics would say?
    I have no doubt they would say something like this: "That would be size XXL, correct Mr. James?"

    While I agree that #22 is Jason's number and, in my mind, always will be Jason's number, you don't lose a chance to sign a once-in-a-generation type player in LBJ or, at the college level, Jabari over a jersey.

    If Jason's cool with it, then I'm cool with it.

  13. #13
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    I guess I'm in the minority on this. Not bothered by any number controversy.

    Much more interested in Jabari's game than his jersey number.

  14. #14
    Quote Originally Posted by roywhite View Post
    I guess I'm in the minority on this. Not bothered by any number controversy.

    Much more interested in Jabari's game than his jersey number.
    I'm with ya. Don't really care...though it does open up a can of worms down the road. That's the real issue. (Though I suppose anyone who made this type of issue a sticking point, isn't really a fit for us character-wise. It would concern me if this was a sticking point for Jabari, though I doubt it is. No harm in asking from his side, especially given that this is post-commitment. Shows he's just asking, its not really something that matters. Can't hold that against him.)

  15. #15
    It's not the number that was on Williams back that I remember best. It's the skill, along with the heart and desire that was inside the player that I'll always fondly remember! Give 'em whatever number they want, their name tells it all.

  16. #16
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    Go with #21, Jabari. 21 has some serious history: Chris Duhon, DeMarcus Nelson, Jay Bilas, Tony Lang, Trajan Langdon, Robert Brickey, Bob Bender

    Might not be available too much longer

  17. #17
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    Quote Originally Posted by SilkyJ View Post
    I'm with ya. Don't really care...though it does open up a can of worms down the road. That's the real issue. (Though I suppose anyone who made this type of issue a sticking point, isn't really a fit for us character-wise. It would concern me if this was a sticking point for Jabari, though I doubt it is. No harm in asking from his side, especially given that this is post-commitment. Shows he's just asking, its not really something that matters. Can't hold that against him.)
    Yeah. Agreed.

    I'm more of a conservative/historical type in that, if it were me, I wouldn't want to touch a retired jersey of someone that came before me. But that's just me. At the end of the day, if Jay, K, and Jabari are all OK with it - it's really up to them. And I'll support their collective decision.

    - Chillin

  18. #18
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    Quote Originally Posted by rthomas View Post
    Let's just say hypothetically that Jabari uses JWills number. and then he stays 3 years or 4 and wins one or two national championships, and has huge numbers. Do you put both jersey's with the same number in the rafters.

    The number is and always will be Williams's as far as I am concerned.
    I don't see why you couldn't have two #22s up there. As long as there is room, of course. Might have to start hanging smaller jerseys.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by BlueDevilBrowns View Post
    I have no doubt they would say something like this: "That would be size XXL, correct Mr. James?"

    While I agree that #22 is Jason's number and, in my mind, always will be Jason's number, you don't lose a chance to sign a once-in-a-generation type player in LBJ or, at the college level, Jabari over a jersey.

    If Jason's cool with it, then I'm cool with it.
    I seem to remember Lebron's career taking off around the time he switched from 23 (inspired by MJ) to 6 (inspired by the US Olympic experience). In 10 years we'll see every high school player wanting to wear #6 and saying, "Michael Who?"

    Hopefully Jabari will similarly decide to carve out his own identity.

    But at the end of the day, it's probably not worth beating the chest over this. It's just a number on a jersey. The letters are much more important.

  20. #20
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    Quote Originally Posted by licc85 View Post
    Go with #21, Jabari. 21 has some serious history: Chris Duhon, DeMarcus Nelson, Jay Bilas, Tony Lang, Trajan Langdon, Robert Brickey, Bob Bender

    Might not be available too much longer
    I'd rather him take J-Will's jersey from the rafters than Amile's off his back.

    Looking at the list of available numbers, have we ever had a player wear a number in the 50s other than Zoubek and walk ons?

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