Bobby Portis is a Miami Heat player now, and he wanted a fresh jersey number to match the fresh start. He landed on one no NBA player has ever really made his own.
Portis will wear No. 95 in Miami after wearing No. 9 for years in Milwaukee. The reason is one of the funnier explanations you will hear all offseason.
“When I was driving my stuff down to Miami, I didn’t want to wear 9 because that’s a Milwaukee thing for me,” Portis told reporters. “I was looking up at the sign and it said ’95 South.’ And if you don’t know, you can take 95 all the way to Miami. So 95 is where I’m at now.”
That is it. He literally saw an interstate sign on his drive south and decided to make it his number. It is stupid in the best way.
Portis came to Miami as part of the Giannis Antetokounmpo blockbuster that reshaped both franchises. The Bucks shipped Portis and Herro and picks to the Heat, and Portis walks into a locker room that suddenly has real title expectations again.
He is a valuable piece. Portis averaged 13.7 points and 6.4 rebounds last season, mostly as Milwaukee’s sixth man, and he brings the kind of edge Miami has always coveted. Pairing him with Adebayo up front gives Erik Spoelstra a real second unit and a bench big who can score.
The number itself is weird. You basically never see two digits above 55 in the NBA anymore since the league opened up the rule. Some guys have gone with 88 or 99 as a nod to something personal. Portis is going with 95 because of a road sign.
Aaron Gordon once wore 00 in the dunk contest because he wanted infinity vibes. DeMarcus Cousins wore 15 to honor Vince Carter. Players have picked jersey numbers for stranger reasons than an I-95 exit sign.
If Portis plays the way he did in Milwaukee, nobody in Miami is going to care what number is on the back. Bucks fans might roll their eyes a little bit at losing him to their own trade partner. But that is life in the Antetokounmpo era, or what is left of it.
Bobby Portis just gave South Beach a jersey number, an origin story, and a permanent bit of highway trivia. Only Bobby Portis.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
