Numbers sure seem to count By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Columnist, 7/31/2003 When Celtics boss Danny Ainge was courting free agent forward Karl Malone, he offered him good money, tried to sell him on the storied Celtics tradition, and stressed that Boston could be a great fit for him. Malone listened carefully, then asked only one question. "He wanted to know if No. 32 was retired," Ainge said. "I reminded him [Kevin] McHale wore that number. He said, `Oh. How do you think he'd feel about me wearing it?' " Malone, who wore No. 32 his entire career with the Utah Jazz, ended up signing with the Lakers. Before he did, he talked with Magic Johnson about wearing his retired No. 32 Lakers jersey. That won't happen. Although Magic publicly offered the number to him (what else is he supposed to do?), Malone will wear No. 11, his number when he played for the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. The number on a uniform may seem trivial, but it is often one of the most important details to athletes embarking on an NBA career, or players in their prime, mulling over a move to a new team. "It's a recruiting tool," Ainge said. "And we're at a big disadvantage." No kidding. Imagine the Celtics' pitch: We love you, we want you, you can have any number you want -- except 1, 2, 3, 6, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 32, 33, 35, or 00. That's 20 jerseys -- and counting. Former Celtics forward Cedric Maxwell's No. 31 will be raised next. "Athletes are superstitious," Ainge explained. "Numbers mean a lot. LeBron James has worn No. 23 his entire life, in honor of his idol, Michael Jordan. He's going to get to wear No. 23 in Cleveland, but if that number was retired, they might have had a problem." Consider this purely hypothetical situation. Suppose free agent Tim Duncan agreed to sign with Boston, but stipulated he must wear No. 21, the number he wore for his two NBA championships with the Spurs. What should Ainge do? Ask Bill Sharman to relinquish his number? Pay him off? Tell Duncan to forget it? Ainge said he has considered asking the Celtic greats how they felt about "unretiring" some of the numbers, if it would help land coveted free agents. "Obviously we'd have to approach it the right way," he said. "I would think that past players would want to see the current Celtics teams succeed and might be willing to help. "But I wouldn't even consider doing something like that without talking first to Larry [Bird] or Bill Russell, or Bob Cousy, or [John] Havlicek, or Red [Auerbach]. If they said it was a stupid idea, then I'd just drop it." Auerbach, who was honored with the retirement of No. 2 for his coaching and general manager talents, quickly squashed the notion yesterday. "You can do whatever the hell you want," said Auerbach, "but I think it's a lousy idea. All these guys who have given you an illustrious career, and you retire their number, and then a couple years later, you forget about them?" Cousy disagrees with his former coach. "I don't live in yesterday," said Cousy. "If giving them my number helps them get a hell of player, then fine. Make his 14A." McHale claims he doesn't have any particular attachment to No. 32, and would be willing to let another Boston player wear it. "If it would help the Celtics, and it would help Danny, then it wouldn't bother me," McHale said yesterday from his Minnesota Timberwolves offices. "It's not like I'm wearing it. It was a great honor to have it retired, but if it helps Danny, I'd do it. Now, if it was the previous management asking, I probably wouldn't." McHale wore two numbers for Hibbing (Minn.) High School -- No. 41 at home, No. 40 on the road. "I never did get an explanation why we did that," he mused. He wore No. 44 at the University of Minnesota, and would have liked the same number in Boston, but Pete Maravich was wearing it at the time. McHale arbitrarily picked No. 32. Maravich ended up retiring before McHale ever played a game, and even though the Celtics had printed up all of their material with McHale as No. 32, the team offered to redo everything with No. 44. "I told them, `Nah, forget it,' " McHale said. "I was just so excited to play, I didn't care what number I had." Don Nelson felt same way. He signed with the Celtics in 1965 as a free agent and spent the remainder of his career (11 seasons) in Boston. In that time, Boston won three championships, and Nellie's No. 19 was hoisted to the rafters. "You don't have enough money to unretire my number," Nelson said yesterday. "It's the only thing I've got. I was part of a number of team records during my time with the Celtics, but retiring my number is one of the very few individual honors I possess. "It means a lot me. How many guys like me, an ordinary Joe, get their numbers retired by the Boston Celtics?" Therein lies the problem. During their championship runs in the '60s, Boston handed out retired jerseys to many of its favorite sons and, in retrospect, probably didn't use enough discretion. Conversely, the Lakers have retired only seven jerseys: No. 13 (Wilt Chamberlain), No. 22 (Elgin Baylor), No. 25 (Gail Goodrich), No. 32 (Magic Johnson), No. 33 (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), No. 42 (James Worthy), and No. 44 (Jerry West). Dennis Johnson said the retirement of his No. 3 with the Celtics was "one of the greatest honors of my life." "But my feeling is, even if they gave No. 3 to someone else, it would still be retired for me," said DJ. "It's kind of like someone asking to borrow your bicycle. You lend it to them, but it's still your bike. "I hate to compare it in those terms, because the number means so very much to me." Johnson said he chose No. 3 when he came to Celtics because at the time there were three people in his family. "Also," he said, "it was my third team, and I was determined to make it my last team. It was a very personal number for me." Ainge understands the emotional attachments to numbers. When he came to Boston, he desperately wanted No. 22, the number he wore in college. Ainge's childhood hero was "Bullet" Bob Hayes, the wide receiver for the Dallas Cowboys who wore No. 22, and ran the 100-yard dash in the Olympics. "I played football and ran track growing up in Eugene [Ore.]," Ainge said. "I really wanted that number. But `Easy' Ed Macauley had already retired it." You can't blame Ainge for being creative and trying to sweeten the appeal of his ball club. But there's something sacrilegious about the idea of someone else wearing Russell's No. 6 or Bird's No. 33. And, for that matter, McHale's No. 32. Really now. What has Karl Malone won, anyway? ---- Jackie MacMullan's column appears every Thursday. Her e-mail address is [email protected]. --

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