Jordan's No. 23 Just Isn't the Retiring Type

By virtually all accounts, LeBron James is an admirable adult who will bring honor to whatever team signs him for next season.

Lately, he has been suggesting that every N.B.A. team retire No. 23 in homage to Michael Jordan. It sounded to me like a bad idea, but James does have solid company in Pat Riley, who has already retired Jordan’s number.

James had every right to seek permission to switch to No. 6 from No. 23 next season, which he did recently — filing the paperwork that lifted hopes for every Cleveland Cavaliers fan in existence.

Jordan has received enough honors — and earned every one of them. But retiring numbers should be mostly up to teams, although there are two distinct examples of a league’s retiring a number — Wayne Gretzky’s No. 99 and Jackie Robinson's No. 42.

Retiring numbers is tricky. The Celtics and the Yankees have retired so many great numbers that one of these years, their players will be wearing triple digits. And I was going through the N.B.A.’s list of retired numbers in some of the western franchises, whose greatest moments have taken place past my bedtime, and to tell you the truth, I had never heard of some of them.

I think of Jim Brown limping back to the huddle, Sandy Koufax firing strikes, Julius Erving making 360-degree dunks, Magic Johnson leading the fast break. Showtime! Long may No. 32 shimmer.