Jersey retirement season’s starting to hit a whole generation of players we were watching just a season ago. Kyle Lowry called it quits this summer, and the Toronto Raptors already confirmed his No. 7 goes up on January 10, 2027. Derrick Rose saw his No. 1 retired by the Bulls back in January. Marc Gasol and Andre Iguodala both got their numbers hung by the Grizzlies and Warriors since 2024.
Now there’s another wave ready for that conversation. Russell Westbrook and Chris Paul both hung it up in 2026, John Wall walked away last year, and Kemba Walker, Blake Griffin, and Rajon Rondo all officially retired in 2024. So we’re ranking seven recently retired guys who should eventually see their numbers rise above an NBA court rather sooner than later.
Advertisement
Rajon Rondo’s got the toughest case here, and that’s purely because we’re talking about the Boston Celtics. The bar for jersey retirement is just ridiculous when you’ve got 18 championships and a ceiling already full of history, so being a great Celtic doesn’t automatically punch the ticket. But he spent his first nine seasons there, won a championship, made four All-Star teams and four All-Defensive squads, and became one of the best passers the franchise has ever had.
He wasn’t a star yet on the 2008 championship squad, but he was already the starting point guard at just 21, putting up 10.6 points, 5.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.7 steals. A couple years later, the offense increasingly ran through him, averaging 13.7 points, 11.1 assists, and 5.6 rebounds across the 2012 playoffs, including that ridiculous performance against Miami in the ECF where he had 44 points, 10 assists, and eight rebounds.
His passing is the strongest angle here. Rondo averaged 8.5 assists across his Celtics career, the highest in franchise history, and led the league in assists twice while wearing green. His 2011-12 season hit 11.7 APG, and he followed with a career-high 11.1 assists in just 38 games in 2012-13.
Advertisement
The awkward part is the number itself. Derrick White‘s wearing No. 9 right now, which tells you Boston never really treated it as untouchable after he left. That’s why he’s seventh instead of something more obvious.
Still, once White’s career is done, I’d definitely have the conversation. Rondo was the point guard connecting the original 2008 title team to those final years with Garnett, Pierce, and Ray Allen when they were all getting older, and some of his best playoff basketball came after that group had already started declining. For nine years, No. 9 was an important part of what the Celtics were doing.
LaMarcus Aldridge never got the fairytale exit the Trail Blazers would’ve wanted from a franchise cornerstone. He spent nine seasons there, hit unrestricted free agency in 2015, and just… left to San Antonio. No championship, no Finals run, no emotional farewell tour. I think that’s part of why his Portland legacy gets underrated now, looking back.
Advertisement
The numbers shouldn’t be underrated, though. He played 648 games for the Blazers and averaged 19.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists, and 1.0 blocks on 48.5% shooting. He scored 12,562 points (still third in team history) and grabbed 5,434 rebounds, and his peak was absolutely jersey-retirement caliber. Four straight All-Star selections from 2012 through 2015, three All-NBA nods, and his final Portland season might’ve been his best at 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, and a block per game while the Blazers won 51.
And there were big playoff moments attached to him. In 2014, he opened the first-round series against Houston with 46 points and 18 rebounds, then followed it with 43 in Game 2. The Blazers eventually won that series on Lillard‘s famous buzzer-beater, but Aldridge averaged 29.8 points and 11.2 rebounds across six games, arguably their best player on that floor.
The fact that he left probably delayed this conversation, because Lillard immediately became the face of the franchise and eventually passed him statistically. But one legend arriving doesn’t erase another one. Aldridge retired in 2023 as a seven-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA player, and nine seasons plus four All-Star nods should eventually earn a spot in the rafters for Portland.
If Chris Paul’s getting a Clippers jersey retirement, Blake Griffin has to be right there alongside him. Actually, Blake probably has an even stronger emotional attachment to the franchise because he got there first.
Advertisement
The Clippers drafted him first overall in 2009, and after missing his entire rookie year with a knee injury, he immediately transformed what the team looked like. He averaged 22.5 points, 12.1 rebounds, and 3.8 assists as a rookie, won Rookie of the Year unanimously, and became an All-Star before Paul even arrived.
Then Lob City happened. Across eight seasons with the Clippers, he averaged 21.6 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 4.2 assists, made five All-Star teams and earned four All-NBA selections, and he’s still second in franchise history with 10,863 points while sitting inside the top 10 in rebounds, assists, steals, field goals, and free throws.
His 2013-14 season was probably the peak: 24.1 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists on 52.8% shooting, played all 80 games, and finished third in MVP voting behind Durant and LeBron. The Clippers won a then-franchise record 57 games and beat the Warriors in seven in the first round.
The ending got messy, which complicates things a bit. He re-signed on a five-year max in 2017 after the Clippers positioned him as a franchise icon, then they traded him to Detroit just months later. Enough time’s passed now, though. Blake retired in 2024 as a six-time All-Star and five-time All-NBA player, with basically his entire best basketball career running through a Clippers uniform.
Advertisement
The Clippers still haven’t retired a single number. Whenever they finally start, the whole Lob City era should have representation, and No. 32 should be part of it.
Retired in 2024 as the Hornets‘ all-time leading scorer with 12,009 points, that’s just the start of what Kemba Walker owns. He’s also the franchise leader in field goals, threes, and free throws, while ranking in the top three in games, assists, and steals.
The team success wasn’t exactly overwhelming, but blaming Kemba for that would be absurd. Charlotte only made the playoffs twice across his eight seasons and never won a series, yet he basically spent his whole prime dragging limited rosters on his back.
Advertisement
His best year came in 2018-19 when he averaged a career-high 25.6 points, 5.9 assists, and 4.4 rebounds, hit 260 threes, made his third straight All-Star team, and earned All-NBA Third Team honors. That final season perfectly explains what he meant to the franchise: he played all 82 games, scored 60 against the 76ers to set a Hornets single-game record, and the team still finished 39-43 and missed the playoffs by two games. There was only so much one 6-foot point guard could do by himself.
Charlotte’s recently started honoring more of its history as Dell Curry’s No. 30 joined Bobby Phills’ No. 13 in the rafters back in March 2026. Kemba should be next. He played 605 games for the franchise, averaged 19.8 points and 5.5 assists, became a three-time All-Star there, and he’s still the leading scorer seven years after leaving.
Nobody’s even worn No. 15 for the Hornets since his 2019 departure, and that already feels like an unofficial retirement anyway. Charlotte might as well make it official.
John Wall never got the farewell his Wizards career deserved. Injuries basically took the second half of his prime, he missed the entire 2019-20 season after rupturing his Achilles, and Washington eventually traded him to Houston before he could get one last healthy run alongside Bradley Beal. But those nine seasons before everything fell apart were more than enough.
Advertisement
He retired in 2025 with career averages of 18.7 points and 8.9 assists, but his Wizards numbers were even better: 19.0 points and 9.2 assists across 574 games. Five straight All-Star selections from 2014 through 2018, All-NBA Third Team in 2017, and All-Defensive Second Team in 2015. His place in the franchise record book is crystal clear too: No. 1 with 5,282 assists and 976 steals all-time, while his 10,879 points rank fourth. That’s an easy jersey-retirement base before you even get into what he meant to the franchise.
The 2016-17 season was the peak. He averaged 23.1 points, 10.7 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.0 steals, led the Wizards to 49 wins, and came one game short of the Eastern Conference Finals. His Game 6 winner against the Celtics (then jumping on the scorer’s table) is probably the signature moment of modern Wizards basketball.
Washington reached the playoffs four times with him and made the second round three times. That doesn’t sound massive until you look at the franchise around those years. The Wizards haven’t won 50 games since 1978-79, and the Wall-Beal era remains their most consistent competitive stretch in decades.
No. 2 should go up sooner rather than later. He was the first overall pick, the franchise point guard, the all-time assists leader, and basically the guy who made the Wizards relevant again for most of the 2010s.
Advertisement
2. Chris Paul, LA Clippers
Chris Paul retired in February after 21 NBA seasons, finishing second all-time in both assists and steals. There are a few franchises that could honor him somehow, but if one team’s retiring his jersey, it has to be the Clippers.
CP3 played six full seasons there from 2011 through 2017, averaging 18.8 points, 9.8 assists, 4.2 rebounds, and 2.2 steals across 409 games. Five All-Star appearances, five All-NBA selections, and six straight All-Defensive First Team nods. He’s still their franchise assists leader with 4,076.
More important than the individual numbers is what happened to the Clippers immediately after he got there. Before CP3, this franchise was basically defined by losing consistently. With Paul, Blake, and DeAndre, the Clippers suddenly produced six straight winning seasons, won the first two division titles in franchise history, and won three playoff series.
Advertisement
They never made it to the Western Conference Finals, and that’s the obvious knock on Lob City, but they completely changed what people expected from this team. A 50-win Clippers season stopped being shocking. His 2013-14 season shows how elite he still was at his peak there: 19.1 points, led the league with 10.7 assists and 2.5 steals, while the Clippers won a franchise-record 57 games.
And here’s another reason this absolutely should happen: the Clippers are literally the only franchise without a retired number. Someone has to be first. For me, No. 3 makes the most sense. Blake deserves to follow, but Paul was the floor general who turned Lob City from just an exciting young roster into a yearly 50-win contender.
There’s no debate at No. 1. Russell Westbrook announced his retirement on August 12 after 18 NBA seasons, leaving as the all-time leader with 209 triple-doubles, fifth in assists, and 14th in points.
Advertisement
He played for six different franchises after leaving the Thunder, but none of those stops ever came close to changing what team he’ll always belong to. He spent his first 11 seasons there, played 821 games, and averaged 23.0 points, 8.4 assists, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.8 steals, leaving as the franchise leader in basically everything: 18,859 points, 6,897 assists, 5,760 rebounds, and 1,442 steals.
And then there’s 2016-17. Durant had just left, everyone expected Oklahoma City to completely collapse, and Westbrook responded with one of the most insane individual seasons ever: 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, 10.4 assists, the first player since Oscar Robertson to average a triple-double, broke Robertson’s record with 42 triple-doubles, and won MVP. He didn’t bounce after Durant either; he signed an extension, stayed as the face of this franchise, and averaged a triple-double in each of the next two seasons.
Eight All-Star selections as a Thunder player, seven All-NBA teams, two scoring titles, two assist titles, an MVP award, a Finals appearance in 2012, and four West Finals trips. Now that he’s officially retired, this is just about the timeline.
The Thunder have Shai leading another title contender now, but that doesn’t reduce Westbrook’s place in franchise history one bit. He helped build the first era, stayed after Durant walked, and produced the most iconic individual season Oklahoma City’s ever seen.
