On Lakers Nation’s Facebook page, we asked you fans if the franchise should retire Kobe Bryant’s number eight or 24 jersey when his career is over. Bryant is currently donning the number 24 jersey and he will likely retire with that number. There will no doubt be a debate as to whether Bryant did more for the Lakers with eight or 24, so we decided to get the conversation going by polling our readers.
Those in favor of retiring number eight totaled for 394 votes, while 2,637 people thought hanging up 24 in the rafters was the better choice.
While wearing number eight Bryant won three consecutive NBA titles, and started to build himself a name in the league. The number eight was Kobe’s first number and he wore it from 1997 to 2006. During that time, Bryant obviously lived through times of great success, but he also had moments of regret and embarrassment.
Kobe went through an ugly off the court issue and there was also the break up of his duo with Shaquille O’Neal which lost him many supporters. However, wanting a new start to his career, Bryant decided to leave number eight and wear 24 instead.
Starting in 2007, Kobe Bryant has worn the number 24 on his jersey. With this number, Bryant has cemented his legacy among the league’s all-time greats and has many people convinced that he is the greatest Los Angeles Laker ever.
With 24, Bryant has won two more NBA Finals and has claimed two NBA Finals MVPs. Bryant never won that individual honor while with O’Neal, so finally claiming them filled in a void on his résumé.
