Jeff Topping / Reuters file

Next year Lakers superstar Kobe Bryant will change jersey number from No. 8 to No. 24 because he wants to create a new revenue stream, writes NBCSports.com columnist Michael Ventre.

Michael Ventre

If you were a Lakers fan during the 1960s, you probably would have been proud to wear an authentic jersey with Jerry West’s No. 44 on it.

If you were a Lakers fan during the 1980s, the same would have held true in regard to Magic Johnson’s No. 32.

If you are a Lakers fan now, however, you’d better have lots of room in your closet if you want to honor your hero Kobe Bryant. In addition to the No. 8 home gold, the No. 8 away purple and the No. 8 Sunday whites, you will now have to spring for a No. 24 home gold, No. 24 away purple and No. 24 Sunday whites.

And that’s assuming he’s finished, which he may not be. Before Kobe retires, you may have to take out a second mortgage and get a part-time job to pay for more Kobe finery with various numbers on them. In fact, at this rate Kobe may petition the league to wear a different number for each day of the week, different numbers for day and night games, different numbers for holidays, and different numbers for playoff games.

That’s not including throwback jerseys. Minneapolis and Los Angeles.

When the final tally is in, Kobe will be rich and you’ll be poor. More accurately, Kobe will be more obscenely rich than he already is.

The news broke this week that Kobe has asked the league for permission to change his jersey number from No. 8 to No. 24. Apparently, this involves little more than Bryant’s representatives filling out a form that assures the NBA it will receive a cut in the profits.

So assuming that No. 24 will arrive in stores next season, the buying frenzy is on. Maybe you can trade in your Michael Jordan Nos. 23 and 45 for one Kobe No. 24.

That’s where all this begins, of course. With Mike. He isn’t the first player in history to change jersey numbers, but he is the foremost marketing god to cash in on it. Granted, Mike switched from No. 23 to No. 45 when he came out of retirement for the final 22 games of the 1994-95 season because his No. 23 had already been retired by the Bulls. Eventually he switched back to 23.

But the ensuing panic by Jordan worshippers who just had to have a No. 45 shirt so they could switch off from No. 23 for those special nights at the sports bar ignited a light bulb in the craniums of superstar handlers across the land who saw a lucrative new horizon in redundant apparel.

This really is unfortunate. Bryant was slowly making his way back from public exile. He still gets booed whenever he touches the ball in many arenas, but with distance comes acceptance. Enough time has passed from the Colorado sexual-assault case and the breakup of the Shaq-led Lakers that the name Kobe is no longer anathema to fans. And the companies that couldn’t get away from him fast enough only a year or two ago are now inching closer again.

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Jim Mone / AP

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