LeBron James Right About No. 23, Stan Van Gundy Wrong

It's another Nike scheme, I suspect, perpetrated to create a rush on LeBron James' new, customized No. 6 jersey. Seems even the swooshheads have to compete against the iPod Touch, Nintendo Wii, PlayStation 3 and Guitar Hero, right? That said, if it truly was LeBron's idea to relinquish No. 23 out of deference to Michael Jeffrey Jordan, I congratulate him for his style.

While admonishing Stan Van Gundy for his ignorance.

James wants every NBA player wearing No. 23 to follow his lead and find another number. It's an idea akin to placing the image of longtime basketball great Jerry West on the league's logo, a silhouette that has survived to this day. If Jordan indeed is the greatest player ever -- and anyone who disagrees should have his sports fan credentials revoked -- it's appropriate to, in effect, retire his jersey without the actual ceremony. James is the one player worthy of the number, as a legitimate heir to Jordan, and he doesn't feel right wearing it. So why would the inferior likes of Devin Brown, Toney Douglas, Stephen Graham, Wesley Matthews, Jodie Meeks, Byron Mullens, C.J. Watson and Martell Webster not feel sheepish, much less embarrassed, in continuing to wear the sacred digits? Only Jason Richardson, Marcus Camby and Kevin Martin have displayed enough skill and accomplishment at the highest level to not draw sneers for wearing No. 23. Yet they, too, should pay tribute to Jordan and get with the LeBron plan.

"I just think what Michael Jordan has done for the game has to be recognized some way -- soon," James said Thursday night in Miami, where Jordan watched the LeBron-Dwyane Wade matchup at courtside with Heat boss Pat Riley. "There would be no LeBron James, no Kobe Bryant, no Dwyane Wade. You name all the best players in the league right now and the last 10 years, and none of us would be here if there wasn't a Michael Jordan first. He can't get the logo, and if he can't, something has to be done. I feel like no NBA player should wear 23. Nobody. I'm starting a petition, and I've got to get everyone in the NBA to sign it. If I'm not going to wear No. 23, then nobody else should be able to wear it."

There will be backlash, certainly. Some will say a number shouldn't be sacred. Some will ask when James became the commissioner. Others will wonder about similar gestures for players almost as great as Jordan -- Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, for instance. James is fixed on one name, one legend. "It's time," he said. "He's the best basketball player we've ever seen. Mike does it on the court and off the court. If you see No. 23, you think about Michael Jordan. You see guys flying through the air, you think about Michael Jordan. You see game-winning shots, you think about Michael Jordan. You see fly kicks, you think about Michael Jordan. He did so much, it has to be recognized, and not just by putting him in the Hall of Fame."

Van Gundy begs to differ. The Orlando Magic coach, who always will have a talk-show career if this basketball thing doesn't work out, says James is speaking out of school. He thinks a universally retired number should be saved for historical impact beyond the game, such as what Major League Baseball did in retiring Jackie Robinson's No. 42. "It's a nice gesture, but (Jordan) is not Jackie Robinson. Baseball did it because it had historical significance,'' Van Gundy said. "There actually were guys before Michael who could play the game. Then you should retire numbers that Russell, Wilt and certainly Oscar (Robertson) wore. I understand LeBron didn't grow up watching those guys, but still.''

So why is West on the logo, Stan Van? The NBA separated one player from the pack -- a white player, by the way, in a predominantly black league -- and designated him as the embodiment of professional basketball. Decades later, why can't a modern superstar lobby to elevate another? The NBA could have replaced West with Jordan on the logo years ago and had few complaints. With such a change not forthcoming, James is right to campaign for a league-wide Jordan tribute in the player ranks. Yet Van Gundy doesn't even think the Heat should have retired Jordan's No. 23 in 2003, rolling his eyes when asked about it Friday.

"I wasn't in the banner department,'' said Van Gundy, a Heat assistant coach at the time under Riley. "I'm just not one of those guys who thinks unquestionably that he (Jordan) was the best player of all time. I don't buy that. We've had a lot of great players at a lot of positions, so what are you going to do? Retire all the numbers, and pretty soon our guys will be wearing No. 327 because all the two-digit numbers are gone. Michael was a great player, and if the NBA decides that every other team in the league has to worship him, then that's up to them. Would I be for that? No.''

To refresh Van Gundy's fuzzy memory, no player ever accomplished more with less around him than Jordan, a 6-6 shooting guard who won six championships with the Chicago Bulls. No player brought the league more attention among the masses. No player produced bigger television ratings. No player more immaculately glorified walking on air, slamming and jamming, oozing of power and grace. And no player was more competitive, no matter how wildly he succeeded. There is no greater representative of the game -- and American sports -- than Jordan. His memory should be everlasting, as James is saying. And, yes, if Jordan's jersey was retired and those of Johnson, Bird, Chamberlain, Russell and all the other greats were not, no one should balk.

Richardson, enjoying a career renaissance with the Phoenix Suns, said in a Twitter posting Friday that he supports James' idea. "Getting lots of tweets about changing my number 4 MJ. Im all 4 it he's the greatest player to ever play. NBA should of retired 23 yrs ago,'' he wrote.

The question is whether James will be wearing No. 6 in Cleveland or New York. It's his "lucky number,'' he says. "My second-favorite player was Julius Erving, and he wore No. 6. I wore 32 in high school because Dr. J wore it at first. My first child was born Oct. 6, it's my Olympic number, my second child was born in June (the sixth month),'' he said. The other night, aggravated by early speculation and quote-twisting on whether he'll stay with the Cavaliers or sign elsewhere next summer, James said he'll no longer discuss free agency. This, too, was the right call, because the constant talk -- which he was feeding, including last week in New York -- was becoming a distraction for the Cavs and the league.

"This free agent talk is getting old. It's getting old and I think I'm going to stop. (This) will be the last time I answer any more free agent questions until the offseason," James said. "I think I owe it to myself, and I owe it to my teammates. It's just getting old. I'm focusing on this season, and this is going to be a really good season for us. I don't want anymore distractions for my teammates, for my organization, for my family.''

Yet it was curious to hear Wade say that he and James have discussed becoming teammates in the future. Surely, Riley will try his damndest to make it happen, even if James wants his own identity and wouldn't want any future championships linked with another superstar. He shut down the talk before the Cavs arrived in Miami, saying, "It never became stressful to me. How many ways can I answer the free-agent question? It got to a point where I can't answer it any other way, so it didn't make any sense for me to keep talking about it."

But he did tantalize the media in mentioning a dream of his. "In a fantasy world, there are a lot of guys in the NBA you would love to see how could you be on the same team and see how you match up with the rest of the NBA," James said. "Not just myself, everybody in the league has visualized playing with somebody, even guys who are not in the league anymore. I visualized playing alongside Michael Jordan when I was a kid. Everyone has that vision."

Want to start a rumor? LeBron James is giving up No. 23 because Michael Jordan is unretiring, at 46, to play with him.

Relax, Stan Van. We're kidding.