Most people believe Kyrie Irving goes over the top with his thoughts and actions. I consider him a legend of the game with his out-of-the-world thinking, adding a colorful character to the game, as well as those nasty dribbles. Irving believes the Earth is flat and takes the court against the Boston Celtics to win his second NBA Championship; this time with the Dallas Mavericks. Similarly, he has his favorite jersey number, which he dons- 11.

But why does he prefer the number 11, after all? He played with number 2 for the first 20 games in Dallas, and it raises questions on a backstory involved with the number. So, what is it?

Reasons why Kyrie Irving changed his jersey number

There are a multitude of reasons for the guard to prefer his jersey number 11. Here are some:

• He wore the number 11 as an homage to his father, Drederick Irving, who wore the number and scored 1931 points during his four-year career with Boston University.
• During his school days at St. Patrick High School in New Jersey, Irving wore the number 11 jersey. After that, he left for Duke, but the number 11 was retired by the college as they paid respects to two-time NCAA champion Bobby Hurley. Therefore, Irving became the first player to don a number 1 jersey. Later, after he got drafted by the Cleveland Cavaliers, Irving wore number 2 as they were retiring the number 11 jersey for two-time All-Star Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
• Soon after, Kyrie Irving got traded to the Boston Celtics, where he donned the number 11 jersey. Initially planned to give to Jason Tatum, Irving received the honors, and Tatum took 0. Ironically, he completed the sacrimonial full-circle moment of honoring his father, who played with a similar jersey number.

• Later, he went to the Brooklyn Nets and donned the number 11, but switched to number 2 after arriving at Dallas Mavericks. As Tim Hardaway Jr donned 11, Irving wore the number 2 jersey. When Hardaway requested a jersey change to number 10 as an homage to his father, Irving switched back to 11, facilitated by Dorian Finney-Smith’s trade.
• If these reasons were not enough, some of the subset reasons are eye-opening. It gives a deeper thought to what goes in his mind! A curious personality, nonetheless. His birth time was 1:11, and the name “Kyrie Irving” consists of 11 letters. The letter “K” is the 11th letter in the alphabet. He participated in 11 games during his time at Duke before being chosen as the number one pick in the 2011 NBA Draft, and he reached the milestone of scoring 11,000 points in the NBA on March 11th.

Jersey number history

• No. 11: St. Patrick High School, Boston University, Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets, Dallas Mavericks.
• No. 1: Duke University
• No. 2: Cleveland Cavaliers

The statistical impact of Kyrie Irving’s jersey numbers

Moreover, Kyrie Irving’s jersey number offered various statistical numbers in his career. Even though he preferred the number 11 jersey, when he donned number 2 with the Cleveland Cavaliers, he scored the pivotal three-pointer in Game 7 against the Golden State Warriors to give his team the lead in the finals of 2016.

But, during his time with the Nets, he scored an efficient 60-point game, a performance not witnessed by the NBA fans. Therefore, he has provided some of the best numbers in the game. Be it number 2 or 11, Uncle Drew is an icon of the game.