Me And My Number

SHANE BATTIER
Rockets forward

"ON MY recruiting visit to Duke [in '96], I looked in the rafters and saw 32, 33 and 35 retired," recalls Battier of numbers worn by Christian Laettner , Grant Hill and Danny Ferry respectively. "I said, There must be something about the 30s. Thirty-one seemed logical. I came in with [center] Chris Burgess , who wore 34. People would have thought we'd retire his number quicker than mine, but he transferred after two years. I was lucky to have a good enough career that my number was retired my last game."

DERMARR JOHNSON
Nuggets guard

A BACKUP, he wore number 3 until Dec. 19, when Denver got a player partial to the digit—Allen Iverson. "Number 3 looks better on him," says Johnson . "He's got a legacy behind it." Johnson says he never asked anything from Iverson for the number—but "if he wants to give me something out of his kindness, that's fine,"—and took number 8 for Kobe Bryant , who used to wear it. "I wanted Kobe's stuff to rub off on me," Johnson said. Has it? Says Johnson , who has averaged 4.3 points since he took the number, "Not at all."

ANTHONY PARKER
Raptors forward

THE NUMBER is a tribute to the five years Parker spent playing with Maccabi Tel Aviv . Eighteen is significant in Judaism, representing chai, or life. "To me it means good fortune in life," says Parker. "I wanted to take experiences I had in Israel with me and also thank fans [there]." Parker, who led the Maccabi to several titles, remains beloved in Israel , and Israeli reporters come to Toronto to write stories on him. How do they react to his numerology? Says Parker, "A lot of them think it's real cool and nice that I would do that."

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