After Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers bear the Miami Heat, he said something rather insane. I don’t know if he is trying to change the subject about if he’s staying in Cleveland next year with another landmark decision, but it may work short term. He said that he would not wear the number 23 next season and he’ll change his number to 6. It is to honor Michael Jordan, which he believes if the greatest player of all-time. He may think that, but why would you change your number for Michael Jordan and change it to the number that Julius Erving and Bill Russell wore? It’s a stupid remark, but is Nike behind the move?

The 25th anniversary of the Michael Jordan shoe is about to debut. Lebron is a big part of Nike’s marketing campaign and this may be a publicity stunt. When Kobe changed his number, his jersey was the highest selling jersey the next year. It’s not because his publicity increased, but fans don’t want to be perceived as “behind the time.” It’s like sporting a Michael Jordan #45 jersey after he changed his number back to #23.

Secondly, Bill Russell and Julius Erving were more important to people in the two generations before Lebron James. I know he never watched them live, but it would be a shame that he would change his number just because of Michael Jordan and to change it to a number when you can argue that those two players could be considered in some groups as more important to basketball than Jordan. If this is some ploy by Nike to get publicity or a way for Lebron to change the “Is he going to sign with the Knicks” questions in post-game interviews, it would be a travesty. I can just see all the males from 40-90 starting to picket games at Q Arena.