88 unlikely to be a popular jersey number

[pokeresq]

Unclear what JD King meant by suggesting 88 would become popular:

"Our guess is that someone pretty soon someone really good will take 88 and that will become a very popular number after that."

Given the symbolic ties of neo-Nazis and white supremacists to 88 (HH), I am at a loss to understand this post. Was it a mistake, a bad joke? The popular twitter suggestion that Timme might come back to college to be the first player to wear 69 was funny, but I am at a loss to explain the above.

[JasonEvans]

I am sure it is because Julian expects Duke players to want to imitate the great almost-Dukie Ndudi Ebi, right?



Ebi is a legend who told Coach K he was going to commit to Duke and asked K to fly to Houston (his hometown) to seal the deal. But, while K was quite literally in flight, Ebi suddenly scheduled a news conference and committed to Arizona instead. Of course, he never suited up for Arizona, instead opting to enter the NBA draft as a high schooler (this was 2002, before OAD existed). He was drafted towards the end of the first round and ended up playing in just 19 total NBA games over two seasons before being cut. He played in Israel, Italy, France, Lebanon, and Iran... rarely playing multiple seasons with the same team and quite often shifting teams in the middle of the season.

Markieff Morris and Antoine Walker also briefly wore 88 during their careers, but I don't know why Duke players would want to emulate those guys when they can instead follow in the footsteps of Ndudi Ebi.

[lotusland]

Clearly JD is a fan of Steeler great, Lynn Swann.

[House P]

Unclear what JD King meant by suggesting 88 would become popular:

"Our guess is that someone pretty soon someone really good will take 88 and that will become a very popular number after that."

Given the symbolic ties of neo-Nazis and white supremacists to 88 (HH), I am at a loss to understand this post. Was it a mistake, a bad joke? The popular twitter suggestion that Timme might come back to college to be the first player to wear 69 was funny, but I am at a loss to explain the above.

Not sure if this is what JD had in mind, but I think that the number 8 is considered the luckiest number in China and is associated with wealth.

[lotusland]

Not sure if this is what JD had in mind, but I think that the number 8 is considered the luckiest number in China and is associated with wealth.

Is the number 8 magical? My sources say yes!

[rsvman]

Not sure if this is what JD had in mind, but I think that the number 8 is considered the luckiest number in China and is associated with wealth.

I don't know anything about China or what numbers are popular there, but I do know that in Japan, the numbers 9 and (especially) 4 are considered bad luck. The fact that 4 is the worst number to them is somewhat ironic to Duke fans, for obvious reasons.

Anyway, there is a reason they don't like these two numbers. The word for the number 4 and the word for death are homophones. One of the ways of saying the number 9 (yes, they have multiple different ways to say 4, 7, and 9) is homophonic for a kanji that means suffering.

[Rickshaw]

Is the number 8 magical? My sources say yes!

Nice reference.

[Rudy]

Unclear what JD King meant by suggesting 88 would become popular:

"Our guess is that someone pretty soon someone really good will take 88 and that will become a very popular number after that."

Given the symbolic ties of neo-Nazis and white supremacists to 88 (HH), I am at a loss to understand this post. Was it a mistake, a bad joke? . . . .

For me, that number raised unpleasant memories of quite a different sort. I’m a little surprised I’m the first to raise it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_of_88

[burnspbesq]

Aidan Danenza says hi.