Amir Johnson found it hard to find an available jersey number with the Celtics

[ahonui06]

There are some numbers that shouldn't be retired but they played critical roles to title teams. I guess the organization gave them benefit of the doubt.

[TA9]

There is an easy solution to this "problem" -> Start retiring names instead of numbers. We should also keep some of the numbers off limit (Like Bill Russell), but this should only be done with some of the numbers which is easier said than done (hence the dilemma regarding "who is worthy of this honor?").

I know that there are still a lot of numbers left (50 and up etc.), but they kinda look bad on a basketball jersey... I'd personally rather have a single digit number on my jersey (if I played in the NBA) which would be pretty much impossible to attain on the Celtics !

[redrobot]

I don't know. I think he was being a little over dramatic, particularly about #5. KG only played 6 seasons with the C's and is currently playing with a Celtic opponent. If he wanted #5, he should have taken it. The C's can worry about whether they retire it down the road.

Yeah I'm sure Amir was really looking forward to facing Garnett while wearing #5. I bet that would go over real well with KG. Maybe he could just throw some general insults towards his family before the game too?

All the retired numbers are well deserved, and the numbers on ice for pre-retirement reserve are there for good reason as well. I welcome the full roster of >50 numbers and see it as a mark of hard earned respect.

We are blessed in Boston to have teams with solid actual for real tradition - something most other teams can only cook up through marketing and PR. The jerseys hanging in the rafters are responsible for the banners they accompany - not the other way around.