Why did Kobe Bryant have two jersey numbers with the Los Angeles Lakers?

The world is still reeling from the death of one of the greatest sporting icons in the world in Kobe Bryant. Tributes are pouring in from eminent personalities from all corners of the globe for the Los Angeles Lakers legend in the wake of the helicopter crash that claimed the lives of him and eight others in Calabasas, California.

NBA teams, in particular, have taken efforts on-court to pay homage to the late Bryant. Just a few minutes after news broke of his untimely demise, the Toronto Raptors and the San Antonio Spurs both conceded 24-second violations to start the game to refer to the iconic jersey won by Kobe. The next day, the Dallas Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder began their game with 8-second and 24-second violations respectively to pay respects to both the numbers worn by Kobe during his 20-year NBA career.

Bryant is also the only NBA player to have two numbers retired by the same team. Let us now look into the story of why Kobe Bryant had two jerseys.

The story of #8 and #24

Kobe Bryant being presented with his #24 Lower Merion High School jersey

The first-ever guard to be drafted directly out of high school, Kobe Bryant wore the #24 jersey while playing for the Lower Merion High School. He would eventually end up taking the #33 jersey, which has already been retired by his alma mater.

After he was drafted by the Charlotte Hornets with the 18th pick in the 1996 NBA Draft and subsequently traded to Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe could not pick the #33 jersey as the number had already been retired by the franchise in honor of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The #24 jersey was also unavailable at the moment as it was being worn by George McCloud then.

Finally, Kobe chose the #8 jersey, a number he arrived at by summing up the digits of the #143 jersey that he wore at the Adidas ABCD camp a year prior. He won the three-peat with the Lakers while wearing this jersey.

It was only until the 2006-07 season that Kobe Bryant changed this jersey and picked up a number he had history with. However, as per his interview with Darren Rovell of the ESPN following his retirement, he had intended to do this much earlier. Kobe wanted to change his jersey number after the Lakers traded Shaquille O'Neal in 2004. He was also coming off the back of sexual assault charge which was dropped in the same year and Bryant had then settled a civil lawsuit.

"It's kind of a clean slate," he says. "I started new. Just start completely fresh, focus on the number that meant a lot to me."

With the deadline having passed already, the intended change in his jersey number didn't come into effect until the beginning of the 2006-07 season.

Statistical comparison of Kobe wearing #8 and #24

Kobe Bryant's numbers wearing both jerseys are rather identical. He's racked up 16,777 points and three NBA rings while wearing the #8 jersey. On the other hand, he accumulated 16,866 points while wearing #24 and won two championships. However, he won both his Finals MVP and regular season MVP while wearing the latter jersey.

Kobe Bryant wore both jerseys for 10 seasons each and in the end, the Lakers organization deemed it would be too harsh to not retire either number and ended up hanging them both from the rafters inside the Staples Center.