Michael Jordan's #23. Larry Bird's #33. Both of Kobe Bryant's #8 and #24 jerseys. All of them are some of the most iconic numbers in the history of the NBA. However, not every number gets the same amount of love that heavily used numbers like #3, #11, or #20. The numbers on this list are so infrequently used that only one player has ever worn them in an NBA game. Now, there are a couple of ground rules for this list. First off, along with the NBA, ABA and BAA uniform numbers will also count in this. For example, Taj Gibson was the first NBA player to wear #67, but thanks to Moe Becker in 1947 also wearing it in the BAA, you won't be seeing #67 here. Second, numbers that have never been used won't be here, so there won't be a #58, #64, or a #69, even though I'm told that last one would be nice. And finally, there are a few numbers I haven't included, those being #07 and #09. Those aren't typos, as the Rochester Royals issued both #07 and #09 to Paul Noel and Bobby Wanzer, respectively, and have given out #03 to three different players. They were the only team to do this, and no player has worn a number with a leading zero since 1955. I've decided not to include them as, based on a situation I'll explain in this post, I don't think leading zeros are allowed to be used anymore
10. #76
Starting off the list, we have someone who saw an opportunity and took it. In the 1993 draft, the Philadelphia 76ers used the 2nd overall pick to select BYU big man Shawn Bradley. And by "big man", I mean it, as Bradley stood at a staggering 7'6, the second tallest height in the history of the NBA. Given his height and the team he would be playing for, the novelty of a 7'6 player on the 76ers was not lost on Bradley, who fully embraced the situation and became the only player in NBA history to wear #76. Bradley would spend two and a half seasons with Philadelphia, donning #76 in 143 games before being traded to the New Jersey Nets in a six-player trade. In New Jersey, Bradley would go back to wearing the #45 he wore in college.
9. #94
The only active player on this list, Evan Fournier (by the way, don't Google his last name. You have been warned) is probably most well known for donning the #10 with the Orlando Magic, a number he chose in honor of his favorite player Mike Bibby. However, after being traded to the Boston Celtics this season, Fournier decided to put back on #94, the number that only he has worn in the NBA. Fournier first sported #94 in 2012, after being selected with the 20th pick in the 2012 draft by the Denver Nuggets. After two seasons in Denver, Fournier was shipped to Orlando in a three-player trade, where he put #94 on the shelf in favor of #10. It would be six and a half years before #94 resurfaced, as due to the Celtics retiring #10 for Jo Jo White, Fournier returned to the number he began his NBA career with. The #94 actual comes from Fournier's hometown of Saint-Maurice, France, which is located in France's 94th district Val-de-Marne. In total, Fournier has donned the #94 in 130 games over two and a half seasons so far.
8. #72
Jason Kapono's NBA career wasn't the longest, lasting just nine seasons in the league, but during that time, Kapono had gained a reputation as one of the league's best three-point shooters. Kapono would lead the league in three-point percentage two times, won the Three-Point Contest two times, and one point held the highest career three-point percentage, although he now sits at 6th all-time. Given his status as a sharp-shooter, it's not too surprising to learn that his skill influenced his odd number choice of #72 when he joined the Philadelphia 76ers in 2009 after being traded for Reggie Evans. For the first six years of his career, Kapono wore #24. However, as the 76ers had retired #24 for Bobby Jones, Kapono opted to use his role as a three-point specialist and some good ol' fashioned math to pick his new number, multiplying his usual #24 by three to get #72. Kapono would spend two seasons in Philadelphia, playing in 81 games before signing with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2011, where he donned another uncommon number in #28, which has only been worn by 38 players total.
7. #65
To find the one NBA player who wore #65, we have to jump all the way back to the early days of the NBA. In 1949, the Syracuse Nationals (who would go on to become the Philadelphia 76ers) kicked off their first season in the NBA after three years in the National Basketball League. Alongside future Hall of Famer Dolph Schayes was George Ratkovicz, a then-27-year-old who joined the Nationals that same year after an eight-year career in the NBL. For his rookie season, Ratkovicz would wear #65, a number that no one in the NBA has worn in over 70 seasons since. Ratkovicz would only don the rare number in his rookie season, playing 62 games with #65, before switching to #6 the following year.
6. #83
Like many players on this list, Craig Smith's random jersey number choice of #83 was brought on by his regular number being unavailable, whether that be due to it being retired or already in use. In the case of Smith, he had worn both #1 and #5 during the first five seasons of his career. After signing with the Portland Trail Blazers in 2011, Smith found himself in need of a different number, as both #1 and #5 were taken by Armon Johnson and Raymond Felton, respectively. Smith chose an unorthodox route when picking his next jersey number and settled on #83. While I can't find a definitive reason behind the number, my guess would be that Smith was referencing his birth year of 1983. Smith would play 47 while donning #83 in what would be his final season in the NBA.
5. #85
When you think of Baron Davis and the number he's most associated with, it definitely isn't #85. The two-time all-star spent 13 seasons in the NBA, and for 11 and a half of those seasons, Davis would always wear either #1 or #5. That changed in 2011 when Davis was traded from the Los Angeles Clippers to the Cleveland Cavaliers midseason as part of the three-player, one-pick trade that ended up landing the Cavaliers Kyrie Irving. At the time, both #1 and #5 were being used by Daniel Gibson and Ryan Hollins, respectively, so Davis decided to pick a less common number, and he ended up becoming the first and only player to wear #85 in the NBA. Like most uncommon number choices, #85 wasn't chosen randomly by Davis. Growing up in Los Angeles, Davis' grandparents played a big part in raising him on 85th street and introducing him to basketball. Davis finished out the year with the Cavaliers before being waived through the amnesty clause. He'd sign with the Knicks that summer and continued to wear #85. In total, Davis wore #85 for 44 games, the final 44 of his career.
4. #68
Once again, we have to go back to the early days of the NBA to find the only player in league history to wear #68. Only this time, we have to go the earliest of days. So early that the #68 only appears before the NBA was the NBA. In the very first season of the Basketball Association of America in 1946, 24-year old Milt Schoon suited up for the Detroit Falcons in their one and only season in the league and donned the rare number for 41 games. After the Falcons folded following the season, Schoon left the BAA for the National Basketball League, spending two seasons in the league. Following the NBA-NBL merger, Schoon found himself back in the NBA as part of the Sheboygan Red Skins, for whom he wore #14. Sheboygan would also leave the NBA after just one season, proving the Milt Schoon is a jinx.
3. #73
Dennis Rodman was no stranger to wearing unorthodox numbers during his 14-year NBA career. After spending the first nine seasons of his career (seven with the Detroit Pistons and two with the San Antonio Spurs) wearing #10, which he had also worn in college at Southeastern Oklahoma State, Rodman was forced to change numbers after being traded to the Chicago Bulls in 1995 for Will Perdue due to #10 being retired for Bob Love. After being denied the use of #01, Rodman instead became the first of eventually four players to wear #91 because 9+1=10. Quick maths. After being released by the Bulls in 1998, Rodman signed with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he'd once again become the first player to wear a certain number, this time #73. #10 was once again unavailable on the Lakers, this time by Tyronn Lue, and while I can't find an official reason for the odd number, given that 7+3 also equals 10, that was probably the reason Rodman picked the number. Rodman would only play 23 games as #73 in a lockout-shortened season before being cut late in the season. Rodman would suit up for one more season following his stint in Los Angeles, this time with the Dallas Mavericks, and once again chose a rare number in #70 (becoming one of eight players to wear the number) after his choice of #69 was denied because David Stern hates fun.
2. #57
Given his status as a lottery pick, Hilton Armstrong's career following the 2006 draft has to be seen as incredibly underwhelming. While Armstrong failed to impress during his six-year career in the NBA, he did manage to find a place in the history of the league. In the final season of his career, Armstrong would sign with the Golden State Warriors in the middle of the year. While he'd worn many different numbers during his career, Armstrong's most frequently used number #12 was already taken by Andrew Bogut. Rather than go back to a number he'd already used, Armstrong decided to go with a number that had never been used in the NBA before in #57. Armstrong would play a total of 15 games with the rare number, in what would be the final games of his NBA career before heading overseas.
1. #63
And rounding out the list we have Coty Clarke and #63. After going undrafted in 2014, Clarke would play overseas in Israel for a season before joining the NBA D-League's Maine Red Claws, eventually playing his way into what would end up being two 10-day contracts with the Boston Celtics. Normally sporting the #4 on his jersey when he played at Lawson State Community College and Arkansas, that number was taken at the time by Isaiah Thomas, so Clarke instead suited up as #63. Unfortunately, I can't find an actual reason as to why. Clarke would only play three games before he was not retained by the Celtics, and he'd return to the D-League that same year. Thus, the six minutes over those three games makes #63 the rarest in the history of the NBA.
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