Nicolò Melli will wear the same number he had at Olimpia before leaving the team in 2015. Number Nine. The history of his number is well known. Initially in Milan he played with the 18, but later the 18 was retired to honor the old warrior, Arthur Kenney. Although Kenney had expressed the desire that Melli wear his number as long as he wished, as a matter of respect for the former star, Nik decided to leave it and turn to 9, or the number his mother Julie wore at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, in volleyball. When he returned to Milan, Melli found that number 9 has been taken for two years by Riccardo Moraschini. But it was Ricky who expressed his intention to “give it back”: “He is a friend of mine – says Ricky -, it was his number, I know how much it means to him, I thought it was the right thing to do.” Moraschini had the 24 with the national team, in honor of the late Kobe Bryant, but that number had been taken by Dinos Mitoglou a few days earlier. That is why Moraschini will have number 21: “It was Kevin Garnett’s number, not in Boston when he was playing against the Lakers, the team I cheered for in the NBA, but it was his historic number. I like Kevin Garnett. That’s why I chose it.”
The other seven returning players have kept the same number from last season (Sergio Rodriguez will have his traditional 13, Kaleb Tarczewski will wear again 15, Paul Biligha will have his 19, Malcolm Delaney will take his 23, Shavon Shields won’t leave his number 31, like Kyle Hines will do with his 42 and Gigi Datome with the 70).
Among the newcomers Devon Hall will have his customary number 22: “It is the number that all the members of my family wore while playing basketball, except for my dad who played with 44 which is 22 time two. By wearing the 22 I represent my family,” says Hall. Dinos Mitoglou’s favorite number was 8, but when he moved to America to play at Wake Forest, noticing the American tendency to use double-digit numbers, he decided to switch to 44 because the sum of the two digits is eight. At Olimpia 8 and 44 are unavailable numbers (8 was retired, 44 is off-limits), so he fell back on 24 “anticipating” Moraschini’s move.
The unavailability of the number 44 also put Davide Alviti in trouble. He had worn it during the magical season he spent in Trieste and also while playing for the national team. The previous year in Treviso he had the 4. His choice was the simplest: he opted for the 40, the same one that Luis Scola wore in his single Milan season. Speaking of unavailable numbers: Ricci played with number 8 in Cremona, then in Bologna he moved to 11, but 11 in Milan is Dino Meneghin’s number, another retired number. That’s why he chose to play with the same 17 he wore with the national team, even at the Olympics.
Jerian Grant has always tried to wear 22, but Devon Hall came to Milan before him. This summer Grant’s eldest son played his first basketball game with the number 10. Jerian asked him which number he wanted his dad to wear: “Play with my same number, 10”. And here is how an unprecedented choice for him took place. Troy Daniels didn’t have to do anything unseen before. He has always played with the number 30, since his high school days. At Fleming High School in Roanoke, Virginia, his number was retired. He took it along for the ride, at Virginia Commonwealth first and then in every single step of his NBA journey.
