One year after surrendering his preferred No. 3 jersey to franchise legend Chris Paul, LA Clippers guard Bradley Beal could be in line to don the number this season.Several fans noticed the LA Clippers’ online store offering Beal No. 3 jerseys for sale Thursday, sparking speculation that a number change is in order.Beal, who wore No. 3 during his previous 13 seasons with the Washington Wizards and Phoenix Suns, did not confirm a switch from No. 0 back to No. 3 while appearing to respond to the news in a series of posts on X. Instead, he offered up a defense of Paul’s Clippers legacy.“Is that the topic of the day? Lol,” Beal wrote on X. He added that, “(Paul’s) a legend! The HISTORY and BRAND can’t be touched, nor erased!!!”Representatives for the Clippers and Beal did not respond to The Athletic’s requests for comment.Paul signed with the franchise last summer for what many expected would be his final NBA season. But after the Clippers got off to a poor start, they abruptly sent him home in early December, and Paul did not play another NBA game before announcing his retirement in February.
In a recent interview on the “Build or Break” podcast, Paul called the saga “one of the most disrespectful things that I’ve endured.”The Clippers have not retired a jersey in their history. Paul, along with Blake Griffin, led the Clippers to five straight 50-win seasons in the 2010s (not counting the lockout-shortened 2011-12 campaign in which LA won at a 50-win pace) and was seen as a clear candidate to become the first honored.Besides Paul, nobody else has worn No. 3 for the Clippers since Al-Farouq Aminu during the 2010-11 season. Aminu was included in the trade with the then-New Orleans Hornets for Paul. Paul left the franchise the first time when he was traded to the Houston Rockets after the 2016-17 season.When the Clippers signed Paul as a free agent, Beal agreed to wear No. 0 so that Paul could take the No. 3 jersey.“Once Brad heard it’s a possibility Chris was coming, he said, ‘I want to give him my number,’ and I don’t even think Chris knows this yet,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said last July. “It’s awesome that Brad made such a great gesture like that.”Paul wore the No. 3 in college at Wake Forest and at every stop in his professional career. Before last season, Beal wore the No. 3 in every season of his pro career since being drafted by the Wizards in 2012. Beal wore the No. 23 during his lone college season at Florida.The Clippers re-signed Beal, 33, to a two-year, $13.2 million contract this summer, with a player option for the second season. His first season in LA was cut short after six games when he suffered a fractured left hip.— Jason Jones, Law Murray and Dan Woike contributed reporting.
