Almost every photo of Austin Rivers in a basketball uniform depicts him wearing the number 25. He wore it for his high school team. He wore it for his AAU team. His Twitter account is AustinRivers25. But that will have to change when he arrives on Duke's campus next fall. The number 25 jersey already hangs from the rafters in Cameron Indoor Stadium, with Art Heyman's name attached to it.
Rivers has a plan for his Duke jersey, though. Yesterday, in a journal entry for Scout.com, Rivers wrote that he plans to wear number zero for the Blue Devils.
"I'm going to pick zero, because it represents a new beginning for me. Everyone starts with nothing at the next level," he wrote.
Rivers wrote that his second choice to 25 would be No. 7, but NCAA rules prohibit players' numbers from having any digits higher than five. So he settled on zero.
Rivers might not want to get so attached to his choice, though, as it's unclear whether coach Mike Krzyzewski would approve. No player has ever worn the No. 0 under Coach K.
Neither had any player worn No. 1 for Krzyzewski, until he allowed Kyrie Irving to be the first this season.
"I figured if [Irving] wanted it, he could handle it," Krzyzewski told The Chronicle last summer. "Just like I let [Brian] Zoubek wear a beard last year. There's some thing I'm changing."
But Krzyzewski went on to say that he might not be so open to make such an exception for Rivers's desired number.
"I don't think I'd ever let a kid wear zero," he said. "Or double zero. No number zeros."
Letting Rivers wear number zero wouldn't be the first time in the last year that Krzyzewski has compromised on some of his traditional rules to accommodate his players. Time will tell if he does the same for Austin Rivers.
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