What's in a number? Why do players choose the numbers they choose, and who do we best remember at each number? In this first of a five part series, we review the the best players who have proudly worn each number for your Sacramento Kings.
0 - Olden Polynice Yikes! Maybe this wasn't such a great idea. Well, I'm sure it will get better. OP was also the worst player to ever wear 0, as he was the only player to wear 0. Somehow this is appropriate.
00 - Tony Delk Beats out 'Tag. Delk really filled it up one night against us after we traded him away, and Ostertag really filled it up one night at fandemonium when he impact wrenched his way into a pair of cheerleader shorts. Shudder!
1 - Travis Mays He got the chance to wear this before we retired the number in honor of Tiny Archibald.
2 - Mitch Richmond The Rock in a walk.
3 - Randy Brown Talk about your hydra of mediocrity (copyright CrownUs93, 2007). This came down to Brown, Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, Shareef Abdur-Raheem, Vernon Maxwell, Cuttino Mobley and Gerald Wallace. I gave it to Brown as he is the only one to log at least 150 games with the Kings.
4 - Chris Webber C-Webb over Spud Webb. This was a slam dunk retired jersey in the making before the knee injury. Now we'll have to wait and see.
5 - Hedo Turkoglu Hedo beats out Tyus Edney. In the pre-Sacramento days both Rick Adelman and Mike D'Antoni wore #5. We will be the only people to ever know this unless the Rockets face the Suns in a 7 game western conference final and the talking heads at ABC run out of things to talk about. Remember, you heard it here first.
6 - US!!! Yep, no one has worn #6, and it hangs in the rafters representing you, the sick and depraved Kings fan.
7 - Bobby Hurley What a star crossed number this is. Aside from Hurley, it was worn by the goofy and felonious Keon Clark. Danny Ainge also wore it during his short stay. Hurley gets it for time served.
8 - Eddie Johnson The forgotten man. This guy flat filled it up for the Kings in the early days, playing Robin to Reggie's Batman. Didn't play a lot of "D" but Lord he could shoot.
9 - Tariq Abdul-Wahad Hey, it was him or K9 (woof!). It's bad enough that I started off this piece with OP, I should not / cannot / will not give the dog a bone. Other choices included Damon Jones and Matt Barnes.
In a few days we'll cover numbers 10-19, and we will eventually make it all the way to the #93 worn by Ron-Ron...oh crap...I just gave away the ending.