As a high-school player at Grant High School in Van Nuys, CA, a young Gilbert Arenas wore the number 25. But when he arrived at the University of Arizona in 2001, the rafters let him know that "25" was off limits.
“I walked into the arena and Steve Kerr’s number 25 jersey was hanging in the rafters,” recalled Arenas. “That’s when I found out that I was going to have to go with a new number.”
Ever the competitor, Arenas picked “0” as his new number, for no other reason than to prove his detractors wrong.
“Zero is the number of minutes people predicted I would play my freshman year at Arizona,” said Arenas, who played ended up playing 32.1 minutes per game in his first season as a Wildcat. “I decided to go with it because I love proving people wrong.”
The two-time All-Star guard is currently third in the NBA in minutes per game at 42.2 and is the league’s fourth leading scorer at 29.2 points per game.