Why won’t Russell Westbrook wear the number 0 with the Denver Nuggets?

The Denver basketball team saw a major addition with the arrival of seasoned playmaker Russell Westbrook. Westbrook joined the Nuggets in free agency after being traded by the Clippers to the Jazz and then bought out of his contract to sign elsewhere. However, Westbrook experienced some discomfort coming to Colorado, and unfortunately, he won’t be able to wear his preferred jersey number.

Westbrook wore the number 4 only during his short stint with the Washington Wizards. Throughout most of the rest of his career, he wore the number “zero” while playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder, Houston Rockets, and the two LA teams, the Lakers and the Clippers.

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Why Westbrook won’t wear the number “0″ at Denver?

Upon reaching Denver, he encountered a bit of a pickle: Christian Braun had already claimed the number zero, and there were rumors that he was unwilling to part with it.

Consequently, Westbrook opted for the number four, which he had previously worn in Washington. Another player from the Nuggets roster, Hunter Tyson, also had the number four, but he graciously relinquished it in favor of the former MVP and triple-double record holder. Tyson will wear number 5 in the upcoming season, by the way.

Westbrook also took to social media to explain that he had not even considered asking Braun for his “0″.

“Let’s please leave our young star alone,” Westbrook wrote. “CB and I never discussed him passing along the number 0. I didn’t want (to) inquire about or request the number 0 because I chose to mark this new change with a ‘new’ number.”

In 2020, Westbrook revealed why he chose “4″” and its significance.

“It’s kind of my first time in my career I can go back to my original number. When I got to Oklahoma, even at UCLA, I got there, Arron Afflalo had it at UCLA. Then I got to Oklahoma City, Nick Collison had it. Then when I got to Houston, Danuel House had it. So I didn’t have an opportunity to kind of go back to my original number. Four is my favorite number. It reminds me and it gives me a sense of my roots and where I started from and where I get it from.”