Denzel Valentine Is Wearing Michael Jordan’s No. 45, NBA Twitter Freaks Out

Some NBA fans on Twitter are criticizing Denzel Valentine’s decision to wear No. 45 for the Bulls, just like Michael Jordan did in 1995.

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Complex Original

Image via Complex Original

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On Monday afternoon, Denzel Valentine—who was selected No. 14 overall in the 2016 NBA Draft by the Bulls—was introduced to the media in Chicago. During his introduction, he revealed that he plans on wearing the No. 45 with the Bulls:

The team put his No. 45 jersey up for sale and everything:

This didn’t come as a huge surprise seeing as how Valentine has worn the No. 45 in the past. He wore the number all throughout college at Michigan State to honor his father Carlton who wore the number back when he played for the Spartans:

But there were some people who were confused about his decision to wear the No. 45, since it’s the number Michael Jordan wore back in 1995 when he decided to come out of retirement after his original No. 23 had been retired. Forget that MJ only wore the number for 22 games:

And forget that other Bulls players, like Luke Schenscher and Rasual Butler, had worn the number since MJ decided to give it up:

Many people were like, “How dare, Denzel?!” And the reactions to Valentine wearing the number got louder on Wednesday morning after Valentine posted this photo on Twitter:

Again, Valentine is not the first Bulls player to wear No. 45 post-MJ, and MJ wasn’t particularly tied to the No. 45 in the first place. But that hasn’t stopped people from going in on Valentine for wearing it. Check out some of their reactions here:

Is all of this silly? Of course. About as silly as this tweet about the photo Valentine posted on Twitter Wednesday morning (LOL):

If Valentine had randomly decided to start wearing No. 45 this season, it might have been acceptable for people to wonder why he was doing it. But he’s been wearing it for years now, and something tells us people will forget all about it once Valentine takes the court. As long as he puts up better numbers than Luke Schenscher—36 total points in 20 games, bro?!—he should be just fine.

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