Former Dallas Mavericks lottery pick Jim Jackson was the last player to wear the No. 24 for the Los Angeles Lakers before Kobe Bryant took it. Jackson also wore that number when he started his career with the Mavericks and when he played for the Miami Heat during the 2001-02 NBA season.
After Jim donned #24 during the 2005-06 season, Bryant took it the following campaign and ended up playing the second half of his career with it after spending the first half of it as No. 8. In hindsight, Jackson talked about how #24 was passed on from him to The Black Mamba.
"It's a deadline that you have to submit to the NBA to change if you want a number changed before the season starts," explained Jackson during his appearance on The Mark Jackson Show. "And the reason why is because they begin to market your jersey. Well, Kobe, I think, waited after the deadline for the 2005-2006 year, so he couldn't change the number. So I ended having it as a default because he had to wait till the following year to change."
Jackson was the last player to wear #24 before Bryant
Kobe originally wanted to change his number after the Purple and Gold traded Shaq in 2004. However, KB and the Lakers missed the 2005 deadline, so he couldn't use #24 during the 2005-06 season. On March 6, 2006, L.A. signed Jackson as a free agent for the remainder of the season.
With Kobe's jersey change request set to take effect during the 2006-07 campaign, Jackson was free to use his Mavericks number because the last Laker to use it was Shea Seals in 1998. For whatever it's worth, however, the Lakers' jersey No.24 was officially passed from Jim to Bryant, and that's something Jimmy jokingly said he is proud of.
"I look at it like my number's up in the rafters at Staples Center," added Jackson. "It's just a different name on the back. Me and Kobe and Shaq and Magic and Kareem and all the guys up there."
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#24 was Kobe's HS number
However, Kobe changing from 8 to 24, had nothing to do with Jackson, as Jim admitted on The Mark Jackson podcast. The reason why Bryant changed numbers was because he wanted a fresh start.
"It's kind of a clean slate," Bryant said . "I started new. Just start completely fresh, focus on the number that meant a lot to me."
#24 was Kobe's number in High School when he was a freshman. After a year, he changed to #33, which was his dad's number. Bryant couldn't wear No. 33 after he was drafted by the Lakers because of Kareem, and No. 24 was worn by Fred Roberts and then George McCloud. KB had plenty of success with #8, so he didn't consider changing his number. However, after his Colorado case and Shaq's departure, it was time to bring No. 24 back.
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