This is the latest post for an ongoing media project — SoCal Sports History 101: The Prime Numbers from 00 to 99 that Uniformly, Uniquely and Unapologetically Reveal The Narrative of Our Region’s Athletic Heritage. Pick a number and highlight an athlete — person, place or thing — most obviously connected to it by fame and fortune, someone who isn’t so obvious, and then take a deeper dive into the most interesting story tied to it. It’s a combination of star power, achievement, longevity, notoriety, and, above all, what makes that athlete so Southern California. Quirkiness and notoriety factor in. And it should open itself to more discussion and debate — which is what sports is best at doing.
A quirky little exercise 2019 attempts to identify the greatest NBA players who wore each digit from 0 to 00 to 99.
Kobe Bryant has both No. 8 and No. 24. Dennis Rodman has claim to both No. 73 (with the Lakers) and No. 91 (with Chicago) because, let’s face it, who else wore them? And the NBA won’t allow No. 69 to be given to anyone.
Mostly note that LeBron James received neither No. 6 (it went to Bill Russell) nor No. 23 (it went to Michael Jordan). If only James had picked a more obscure number — like No. 40, the age he reached on Dec. 30, 2024, in the middle of his 22nd NBA season.
Call him King James, LBJ, Chosen One, Bron-Bron, The Little Emperor, The Akron Hammer, L-Train, Benjamin Buckets or Captain LeMerica. The 21-time All Star, 21-time All NBA, four-time regular season MVP, four-time NBA champion (on three different teams), four-time NBA Finals MVP (on three different teams), three-time All-Star Game MVP, four-time scoring champ, six-time All Defensive team, a member of the 75th NBA Anniversary team and — the icing on the cake, the ’23-’24 In-Season Tournament MVP — has some dashing numbers to consider over the breadth and depth of his pro career.
That career, by the way, makes him a professional for a longer period of time than the first 18 years when he wasn’t.
He has been officially listed as a 6-foot-9 and 250-pounds small forward, power forward, point guard, shooting guard and center on his career stats resume.
He is the only NBA player with more than 40,000 regular season points, more than 1,700 games consecutively in which he has scored a point (every game he’s ever played), more than 67,000 minutes logged.
His best scoring performance: 61 in 2014 for Cleveland (which scored 124 in an OT win). His Laker best point-production: 56 in 2022 at age 37.
Most rebounds in a game: 20 in 2024 at age 39 for the Lakers in an epic 2OT win at Golden State.
Most assists in a game: 19 in 2020 at age 35 for the Lakers.
He is the only NBA player with more than 30,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 10,000 assists in the regular season.
He has played in 292 consecutive playoff games, never without an absence, and his team has won 41 of the 55 series he’s played in.
But really, what do numbers mean when sizing him up?
He’s not even sure.
Consider when James arrived in Los Angeles as a free agent starting with the 2018-19 season, after his second run with his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers, he continued wearing the No. 23 as a Laker.
For the 2019-20 season, James convinced his friend, Anthony Davis, to leave New Orleans and join him with the Lakers – with a promise he would shed No. 23 and give it to Davis, who had those digits since his rookie season in 2013, and even wore in is one year at Kentucky, as a tribute to his favorite player — James.
(The story goes: Davis, who grew up in Chicago, won a Black History Month trivia contest at Perspective Charter High School and with it came a $10 gift card. He used it to buy a book about LeBron James, the Cleveland Cavs player who wore No. 23, and inspired him to do the same. So Davis wasn’t wearing No. 23 for Michael Jordan).
James decided that giving up No. 23 to Davis meant he could slip back into No. 6, which he wore with the Miami Heat from 2011 to 2014 and helped them win a title. But the NBA wasn’t happy with that. Nike had a large supply of No. 23 James jerseys that would have become obsolete to buyers if that switch occurred. They said James and Davis did not give them enough notice before the season, so the league forced James to stick with No. 23. Davis, in response, chose No. 3. The idea stalled.
For the 2022-23 season, James did back shift to No. 6. But Davis stuck with No. 3. To confuse it even more, when Bill Russell died and the NBA honored him with having everyone wear a black circle “6” patch on their jersey, James was wearing No. 6 in two spots on the same jersey.
If that wasn’t waffling enough, James announced for the 2023-24 season, he would go back to No. 23, leaving No. 6 in deference to Russell.
For now.
What do the numbers 23 and/or 6 even mean to him?
When he passed Michael Jordan on the NBA list of most games with 30 or more points, James said he wore No. 23 because of Jordan. That started with James’ high school days at St. Vincent-St. Mary High in Cleveland from 1999-2000 to 2002-03 (although he wore No. 32 as a freshman before changing). The 32 carried over the first seven seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. During that stretch (2003-04 to 2009-10), his choices for the U.S. team in the Summer Olympics were No. 9 in 2004 (the 19 year old yielded to Dwayne Wade for No. 6) and then No. 6 in 2008 (James switched numbers with Wade). Joining Wade in Miami, James picked No. 6 again from 2011 to 2014, and also kept No. 6 on Team USA in 2012. Going back to Cleveland in from 2015 to 2018 got him back with No. 23. Then came the flip flopping of 23 and 6 in Los Angeles.
In 2023 he said the No. 6 reflects the birthday of his son Bronny (the 6th of October) as well as the birth month of his son Bryce (born in June). James has also pointed out to those mathematically challenged that two-times-three equals six.
There’s also the case, James said, where another one of his favorite players, Julius Erving, has worn Nos. 32 and 6 in his career in the ABA and then to the NBA.
Why do we now feel so much dumber?
A narrative devolving from all this has to do with how James has created a confusing mercenary role with the Lakers as he starts his eighth season in L.A. as one of the most powerful figures in the sports world.
The Lakers have a record slightly above .500 with him during his tenure, and one somewhat suspect NBA title during the bubble year of 2020.
If he’s searching for a digital identity in a district where he has never played a full season – the most was 71 of 82 games in 2023-24 — then we’d settle on No. 23, which he wore doing most of his busy work in L.A. He wore No. 23 at St. Vincent-St. Mary High from 1999-2003, to honor Jordan. He kept No. 23 in Cleveland from 2004 to 2010, and then again from 2015 to 2018.
He swapped out to No. 6 for that Miami run from 2011 to 2014. James wore No. 6 when, as a Laker, he became the NBA’s greatest regular-season scorer. So there is that photo op.
In an L.A. Times piece in July 2023, the question was asked: Will the Lakers give LeBron James the Kobe treatment and retire both numbers?
Our immediate response: Really?
It’s sketchy enough they even retire one of them.
Miami, which has already retired No. 6 for Russell, No. 23 for Jordan and No. 13 for Dan Marino (?), can retire James’ No. 6 too. The Cavs can retire his No. 23. They haven’t yet.
In its 2023 list of the 50 most influential figures in sports, Sports Illustrated, James was included with this bio: “Even without a basketball in hand, James is a standard bearer, by repeatedly giving athletes new ways to think about business and how they use their star power. In 2020 he created his own film and TV production company, SpringHill. He’s inked shorter contracts to maintain flexibility and force accountability on how teams build around him, and helped set a precedent for superstars signing on to play alongside one another. (His desire to play with his son Bronny could shape NBA roster decisions for the next two years.) None of this gets into James’s social justice work or the thing that he claims to be most proud of: In ’18, his foundation opened the I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, which serves at-risk students and offers career-placement help for the parents of the children.”
Just rest assured that here, in this place, James can wear whatever title or crown he sees fit. More power to him. There’s just no right way to attach an accountable jersey number to it. So we won’t.
James may occasionally go into “sicko” mode and continue to perform feats beyond our anticipation. His 40,000-plus career points may be among the records never to be broken. It can be absurd and amazing.
He can even “mesh his life goals” in the form of a children’s book. He is more, and all that.
But to tie this all up, we refer you to a Wall Street Journal story that posted during the 2024 NBA All Star weekend, with the headline: “The Insatiable Ambition of LeBron James: The basketball legend is building a business that includes movies and TV, advertising and a grooming line. It’s all part of a new model for how athletes can cash in on their fame.”
It starts this way:
LeBron James is particular about his facial hygiene. He favors a Neutrogena pink-grapefruit wash.
“I love it, I love it, I love it,” the NBA superstar says.
James, 39 years old, also loves the business potential. His company, SpringHill, is launching its own rival face wash in a men’s grooming line—part of a major expansion of his burgeoning business empire in the twilight of his career.
“I told them I want this face wash to resemble that,” James said, “because I love how the crystals make your face feel super-washed.”
Almost a decade ago, James helped create a new kind of company: one built around the personality of a sports superstar who can talk directly to millions of fans on social media. Entertainment was the primary focus. SpringHill has made movies like Adam Sandler’s “Hustle” and “Space Jam: A New Legacy,” and TV series like NBC’s game show “The Wall” and the barbershop talk show “The Shop.”
Now James and his longtime business partner, Maverick Carter, have a dizzying list of expansion ideas. Beyond the grooming line, SpringHill is making plans to expand internationally, with an eye on Western Europe, the U.K. and possibly Japan and Africa. The company is planning to bring a version of “The Shop” to the U.K., hosted and executive-produced by British actor Idris Elba. SpringHill is discussing launching a free, ad-supported streaming channel, and is hunting for acquisitions, with a particular focus on videogames and animation. …
James, sitting in an airport hangar one December afternoon and awaiting a Los Angeles Lakers team flight, said he’s always wanted to excel in more than one area—basketball fans know him as not just a dominant scorer, but an elite passer, rebounder and defender. “I have always felt like I was a Swiss Army knife,” says James.
He extends the analogy to the expansion of SpringHill into new lines of business. “We couldn’t just be a wine opener,” he says, “We wanted also to be a pair of scissors and a fingernail clipper.”
In the end, the numbers that mean most to James aren’t No. 6 or No. 23. It’s his bank balance, and his corporate power ranking, and his ability to seize moments no matter what city he happens to be living in. Southern California provides a lot for his Swiss Army knife existence. But it can be a double-edged sword.
In October of 2025, as rumors swirled about him perhaps announcing this season would be his last in the NBA, he kept pushing out on social media that a “Decision” was about to come. The “Second Decision.”
Then he went ahead and announced a deal with a liquor company.
The New York Times called it “easily the cringiest, corniest thing he has ever done in his otherwise superlative career. … ” On a Lakers fan site, it noted that “plenty of fans rushed to blow money on Lakers tickets for the final regular season game when they thought LeBron might be calling it quits. … If James’ move proved anything, it is not only that he is exactly who everyone thought he is, but also that many are still not ready to see him go.”
At the Lakers’ Oct. 7 practice, Lakers head coach JJ Redick was asked if he got any texts about LeBron James retiring after Monday’s tweet. Redick smirked and replied, “You guys are idiots … We all knew it was an ad, right?”
At least one Lakers supporter didn’t laugh it off. He filed a civil suit accusing James of “fraud” and “deception” and “misrepresentation.” Then he caved in. To a gambling company.
More footnotes:
= In August of 2024, ESPN named its Top 100 athletes of the 21st Century … even though the century was only a quarter completed. James was slotted at No. 4 because “Volume isn’t a vogue way to measure achievement in the NBA anymore, and it lends credence to those who want to push James down all-time lists. It’s the only side of the argument to take against James, who has essentially renamed the NBA’s record book for himself.“
= In June 2024, the Los Angeles Times listed its “L.A. Influential” list and included James for his business acumen.
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