NBA father whose jersey was retired says son cannot wear his number!

[True Dough]

1. I have to say, I'm surprised by the poll results

Here's my take:

If I were a dad (and I'm not), the one person in the world I would be proud to "unretire" my jersey for would be my son.

Yes, he should be paving his own path, but he's decided to go into professional basketball, so he's already chosen to emulate his pops.

Also, by wearing his father's number, he's actually inviting greater comparisons and scrutiny. Even more so, he'll be expected to live up to his father's level of greatness. So he's inviting that added pressure.

I wouldn't hesitate to have him wear my jersey number, but I would have sat him down and made perfectly clear that he's NEVER to throw dad's name around to try to get his way about anything, not to the coach, not to his teammates, not to league officials. Because I'm not stepping in to save his bacon if he finds life unfair somehow.

That's how I would have handled it.