Last night, LeBron James made the suggestion that he and his NBA brethren give up the number 23 in deference to Michael Jordan. Some weren't all that convinced, making the argument that while Jordan is certainly one of the best to ever play the game, he's not alone. Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy went on to ask whether that means they should retire the numbers of Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Oscar Robertson, too? Where does it end? Fair points, all. You can't fault LeBron for wanting to honour his childhood hero, but just when does a league-wide honour have a place?

The NHL did it back in 2000, when every team retired No. 99. Did anyone pipe up and ask whether that means the numbers of Gordie Howe and other Hall-of-Famers should only be seen hanging from the rafters and not on the back of another jersey? Probably not, but the argument is valid there, too.

Retiring numbers is something that should occur long after a player retires. Hell, the Leafs go much further and only pay tribute to certain numbers, still making them available to current players, which has drawn criticism itself. In any case, why this constant need to immediately memorialize? What happened to waiting until a player was old and grey, and then trotting him out to centre court/ice for a final huzzah? Michael Jordan's only 46 years old FFS, there's no rush. Besides, as Pat Riley said, if we start retiring all these numbers, we're going to end up with teams full of dudes wearing numbers like 347.