Bobby Portis Jr. believes in having that mean something to him on the back of his uniform. But he was denied that choice at the Miami Heat after arriving on a blockbuster trade from the Milwaukee Bucks. A failed bribe made him switch to a new number as he revealed how his teammate rebuffed his advances.

Bobby Portis Jr. and Giannis Antetokounmpo were officially introduced at the Kaseya Center on July 16. Bobby was seen wearing the jersey number 95 as fans wondered if he strayed away from his usual favorite jersey number 9. The star revealed the reason in an interview.

“One of my teammates has my number, number nine, and he said it was super sentimental to his family. Everybody wore number nine. Tried to pay him for it. He still didn’t want the money,” Bobby Portis said.

The teammate that has the number 9 jersey at the Miami Heat is Shooting guard Pelle Larsson. Hailing from a basketball family, Larsson’s father, Christian, was a former member of the Sweden men’s national basketball team, and the jersey number 9 was a family thing.

However, Larsson wore jersey number 3 at the Utah Utes and the Arizona Wildcats during his collegiate career. But after being drafted by the Houston Rockets and immediately traded on draft night to the Miami Heat, he switched back to his family’s sentimental number. After a year with the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the NBA G League, he is back on the Heat’s roster and is unlikely to give up his number to Bobby Portis Jr.

Bobby Portis Jr was fixated on jersey number 10 during his college career. He once revealed he wore the number 10 during his time with the Arkansas Razorbacks, as he was born on February 10 and weighed 10 pounds and 10 ounces. But he rarely got the choice during his NBA career.

After joining the Bucks, he found out the number 10 was retired for Bob Dandridge and picked nine and grew up to love the number so much during his six-year stay in Milwaukee. But he felt the change in Miami was a blessing in disguise.

Bobby Portis explains the new jersey number

With Larsson refusing to give up his new favorite number nine, Bobby had no choice but to find the silver lining and settle for a new number.

“I had to find a new number. It was like kind of a blessing in disguise because I kind of wanted to leave a nine in the past in Milwaukee and start something new,” he said.

“I wore number nine in Milwaukee. I had number five to start my career. Put them together. It’s my birth year,” he continued.

This was an ode to 1995, the year Bobby Portis Jr. was born. After using his date of birth to previously decide on his college jersey number, he now turned to his year of birth for his NBA jersey number.

“Then I was in the car riding with my OG. I looked up, and it said 95 South. I just took it and ran with it. I’m a numbers guy. So things have to make sense. Like, I don’t want to just put something on that doesn’t have any value towards it,” Bobby continued.

Revealing how 95 even had a previous deeper connection to him, he explained with an example from his past.

“So I used to play like 2K and stuff too. I used to put my number as like number 95 on the game.
It’s crazy that it happened this way,” he concluded.

The 31-year-old is geared up for a new challenge as he aims to bring a first NBA title since 2013 to the Heat and believes he can develop on a stellar individual 2025/26 season.