Wide Receivers Preview Part Two

Talking the business of sports

In honor of the legendary Bill Russell, the NBA retired his number league-wide on Thursday . Nobody will wear No. 6 for the Orlando Magic or Sacramento Kings again.

Actually, even before this news, nobody was going to wear No. 6 for the Magic or Kings. Both franchises retired it for "the sixth man," i.e. their fans. This is the kind of thing you learn when you're researching who most recently wore the number for every team and who might be the last to wear it in the entire league.

Players wearing No. 6 going into next season "will be grandfathered," the NBA announced in a press release. Should any of these players change teams, they will be able to continue wearing No. 6, according to a league spokesperson. 

This means that, for teams that had not already retired the number, it is not strictly accurate to say that no one will wear it again. That said, here are the players who most recently wore No. 6 for every team in the league:

So, who might be the last player to wear No. 6 on an NBA court? Of the 16 players currently wearing it (including Lofton, excluding Lou Williams and Stephenson), five were born in the 2000s:

Additionally, David Duke Jr. and Moses Brown share a birthday: Oct. 13, 1999. 

It is possible that the last player to wear No. 6 in the NBA will not be in the above group, but those guys will all be 22 or younger when training camp begins in September and will be allowed to wear it for the duration of their careers. If you're trying to make an educated guess, that's a good place to start. 

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