With one of the longest careers in NBA history at 21 total seasons, it probably shouldn’t surprise that legendary Boston Celtics big man Robert Parish ended up in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
But he wasn’t always an elite center, and at one point in his basketball-playing career, the Shreveport native wasn’t even the best player on his team, or even close to it. In fact, that happens to be the reason the Centenary College product began wearing his signature jersey number with the Celtics, ’00’. Now among the rafters hanging in glory in TD Garden after said Hall of Fame career, Parish once told the tale of how he ended up with that most unusual of jersey numbers on the “In the Post With Elvin Hayes” podcast.
Buy Celtics Tickets“My junior high school team gave out jersey numbers to the players [based on] the scale of talent,” began Chief, as he is sometimes called.
These are the 10 Celtics who played the most seasons with Boston. https://t.co/0KtO4GXIIg
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) October 2, 2023
The Louisianan big man explained how that affected jersey selection at his school, noting that the “best players got their jerseys first.”
“And then, the players that weren’t as good as the starting five, that’s who got the remaining jerseys. And being that I was the worst player on the team at the time, 00 was the last jersey. So that’s how I got the number 00”
“The number just stuck with me,” Parish added.
Every player in Boston Celtics history who wore No. 77 https://t.co/P93KFEKvof
— The Celtics Wire (@TheCelticsWire) August 28, 2021
He has by all discernable means come about as far as anyone can from being that struggling young player settling for a jersey number that would one day be among the most revered of his former team.
But it’s a helpful reminder to all of us that a symbol of our weakness might one day be an emblem of our strength, given enough time and perseverance.
Even if it doesn’t end up hanging from some arena’s rafters.
Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi
YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ
