Who wore number 10 in NBA?

Wearing the right number on your jersey is more important than just a fashion statement. It’s an important part of being an NBA player that goes back to the beginning of professional basketball.

Walt Frazier

Walter “Clyde” Frazier Jr. is an American former professional basketball player of the National Basketball Association (NBA). As their floor general and top perimeter defender, he led the New York Knicks to the franchise’s only two championships (1970 and 1973), and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1987. Upon his retirement from basketball, Frazier went into broadcasting; he is also known as a color commentator for telecasts of Knicks games on the MSG Network. In 1996, Frazier was honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 50th Anniversary Team. In October 2021, Frazier was again honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

Tim Hardaway

Timothy Duane Hardaway Sr. is an American former professional basketball player and coach. Hardaway played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, Dallas Mavericks, Denver Nuggets and Indiana Pacers. He was a five-time NBA All-Star and All-NBA Team selection. Hardaway won a gold medal with the United States national basketball team at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He was known for his crossover dribble which was dubbed the “UTEP two-step” by television analysts.

He is the father of the NBA player Tim Hardaway Jr.

JoJo White

Joseph Henry White was an American professional basketball player. As an amateur, he played basketball at the University of Kansas and represented the U.S. men’s basketball team during the 1968 Summer Olympics. As a professional, he is best known for his ten-year stint with the Boston Celtics of the NBA, where he led the team towards two NBA championships and set a franchise record of 488 consecutive games played. White was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

On Friday, April 9, 1982, his number 10 was hung from the rafters at the Boston Garden. He was in the top 100 in the NBA for career total field goals made, field goals attempted, assists, free throw percentage, minutes per game, and defensive rating. He made the All-NBA Second Team in the 1974–75 and 1976–77 NBA seasons. White was director of special projects and community relations with the Celtics at the time of his death.

In 1991 White was welcomed into the Missouri Hall of Fame. He was also inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame. His jersey was retired by the Kansas Jayhawks in 2003. He was inducted in the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame with the class of 2009. He also joined the 2013 class of the St. Louis Sports Hall of Fame.

White was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class in September 2015. He was inducted alongside his former coach, Tom Heinsohn, and was formally introduced into the Hall by fellow Celtics John Havlicek and Dave Cowens.

Previous to his induction in 2015, White’s long exclusion from the Basketball Hall of Fame was a common topic when discussing players who have long been eligible but have not been inducted, with most writers believing his entry has been long delayed. One writer in 2012 went as far as to declare a Jo Jo White Threshold as a marker for viability among future candidates.

Maurice Cheeks

Maurice Edward Cheeks is an American professional basketball coach and former player, also known as assistant coach for the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has also served as head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, Philadelphia 76ers and Detroit Pistons. Cheeks was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2018.

Dennis Rodman

Dennis Keith Rodman is an American former professional basketball player and unofficial US Peace Ambassador to North Korea. Nicknamed “the Worm”, he is known for his fierce defensive and rebounding abilities. Rodman played for the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers, and Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Rodman played at the small forward position in his early years before becoming a power forward. He earned NBA All-Defensive First Team honors seven times and won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award twice. He also led the NBA in rebounds per game for seven consecutive years and won five NBA championships. His biography at NBA.com states that he is “arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history”. On April 1, 2011, the Pistons retired Rodman’s No. 10 jersey, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later that year. In October 2021, Rodman was honored as one of the league’s greatest players of all-time by being named to the NBA 75th Anniversary Team.

From the beginning of his career, Rodman was known for his defensive hustle, which was later accompanied by his rebounding prowess. In Detroit, he was mainly played as a small forward, and his usual assignment was to neutralize the opponent’s best player; Rodman was so versatile that he could guard centers, forwards, or guards equally well and won two NBA Defensive Player of the Year Awards. From 1991 on, he established himself as one of the best rebounders of all time, averaging at least 15 rebounds per game in six of the next seven years.

Playing power forward as member of the Spurs and the Bulls, he had a historical outburst in the 1996 NBA Finals: he twice snared 11 offensive rebounds. In addition, he had a career-high 34-rebound game on March 4, 1992. Rodman’s rebounding prowess with Detroit and San Antonio was also aided by his decreased attention to defensive positioning and helping teammates on defense. Daly said Rodman was selfish about rebounding, but deemed him a hard worker and coachable. Rodman’s defensive intensity returned while with Chicago.

On offense, Rodman’s output was mediocre. He averaged 11.6 points per game in his second season, but his average steadily dropped: in the three championship seasons with the Bulls, he averaged five points per game and connected on less than half of his field goal attempts.

His free throw shooting (lifetime average: .584) was considered a big liability: on December 29, 1997, Bubba Wells of the Dallas Mavericks committed six intentional fouls against him in only three minutes. The intention was to force him to attempt free throws, which in theory would mean frequent misses and easy ball possession without giving up too many points.

However, this plan backfired, as Rodman hit 9 of the 12 attempts. This was Dallas coach Don Nelson’s early version of what would later develop into the famous “Hack-a-Shaq” method that would be implemented against Shaquille O’Neal, Dwight Howard, and other poor free throw shooters.

In 14 NBA seasons, Rodman played in 911 games, scored 6,683 points, and grabbed 11,954 rebounds, translating to 7.3 points and 13.1 rebounds per game in only 31.7 minutes played per game. NBA.com lauds Rodman as “arguably the best rebounding forward in NBA history and one of the most recognized athletes in the world” but adds “enigmatic and individualistic, Rodman has caught the public eye for his ever-changing hair color, tattoos and, unorthodox lifestyle”.

On the hardwood, he was recognized as one of the most successful defensive players ever, winning the NBA championship five times in six NBA Finals appearances (1989, 1990, 1996–1998; only loss 1988), being crowned NBA Defensive Player of the Year twice (1990–1991) and making seven NBA All-Defensive First Teams (1989–1993, 1995–1996) and NBA All-Defensive Second Teams (1994). He additionally made two All-NBA Third Teams (1992, 1995), two NBA All-Star Teams (1990, 1992) and won seven straight rebounding crowns (1992–1998) and finally led the league once in field goal percentage (1989).

Rodman was recognized as the prototype bizarre player, stunning basketball fans with his artificial hair colors, numerous tattoos and body piercings, multiple verbal and physical assaults on officials, frequent ejections, and his tumultuous private life. He was ranked No. 48 on the 2009 revision of SLAM Magazine’s Top 50 Players of All-Time. Metta World Peace played one year with the 91 jersey number in homage to Rodman, who he described as a player who he liked “on the court as a hustler, not when he kicked the cameraman”.

Louis Dampier

Louis Dampier is an American retired professional basketball player.

A 6-foot-tall guard, Dampier is one of only a handful of men to play all nine seasons in the American Basketball Association (ABA) (1967–1976), all with the Kentucky Colonels. He also was one of just two players to play all nine ABA seasons with the same team; the other was Byron Beck of the Denver Rockets, later renamed the Nuggets.

After the ABA–NBA merger in 1976 Dampier also played three seasons (1976–1979) in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the San Antonio Spurs. Dampier was inducted as a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

DeMar DeRozan

DeMar Darnell DeRozan is an American professional basketball player known for playing with the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the USC Trojans and was selected ninth overall by the Toronto Raptors in the 2009 NBA draft. He is a multiple-time NBA All-Star and All-NBA Team member. He spent nine seasons with the Raptors, including five playoff runs, before being traded to the Spurs in the summer of 2018. DeRozan has played for the United States national team in the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics.