In order to honor the late Kobe Bryant, Maurice Harkless of the LA Clippers will join other players in changing his jersey number.
The NBA world continues to mourn the loss of Kobe Bryant who passed away alongside his daughter and seven others in a tragic helicopter accident on Sunday. Several players, including the LA Clippers’ Maurice Harkless, have decided to change their jersey numbers.
Harkless, who previously wore number eight, will no longer don that number out of respect and will wear number 11 according to Shams Charania of The Athletic.
Los Angeles Clippers forward Moe Harkless has changed his No. 8 jersey to No. 11 in honor of the late Kobe Bryant, sources tell @TheAthleticNBA @Stadium. https://t.co/taupfTlQSc
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 29, 2020
Other players have reportedly started to follow this trend with Spencer Dinwiddie of the Brooklyn Nets being the first to do so.
Others have received permission to wear Kobe’s numbers in order to honor him. Joel Embiid sported the number 24 in Tuesday’s game in Philadelphia. Embiid cited Kobe as the whole reason he got involved in the game of basketball.
The Dallas Mavericks owner, Mark Cuban, announced that no one on the team will ever wear the number 24.
There will surely be several more tributes as the season goes on. Teams have continued to take shot-clock violations as well as eight-second violations to start games.
The last team remaining to pay tribute to Kobe is the Los Angeles Lakers who understandably have not played since the news broke. They were scheduled to host the LA Clippers tonight but informed the league that the team was not yet ready to play after the devastating story.
They will take the court on Friday when they host the Portland Trail Blazers.