Ty Jerome Saved Lonzo Ball From Picking a ‘Nasty’ Jersey Number in Cleveland

With the Chicago Bulls’ continued failure to pick a direction for the franchise, Lonzo Ball may have expected to find himself on a new team this summer. The team is overloaded with talented young guards, so the writing was certainly on the wall. But there’s no way the 27-year-old could have predicted a trade to the Cleveland Cavaliers while vacationing in Fiji. A 17-hour time gap between Chicago and Lonzo’s vacation destination meant he was fast asleep when the news dropped.

Ball explained that, while in Fiji, he was living on “island time”, waking up when the sun rises and going to bed early, soon after it sets. As a result, Lonzo was fast asleep when the trade was announced. It was 3 AM in Fiji. It wouldn’t be for another four hours that the talented playmaker awoke for the day, only to be greeted by a phone filled with missed calls.

The sixth-year veteran shared that his phone was blowing up with calls from his agent, Rich Paul, and the Bulls’ president, Arturas Karnisovas, alerting him of the news. Soon after, he was receiving texts and calls from Cleveland’s coaches. At this point, reality set in, and Lonzo realized this was the real deal.

“My phone was crazy. I can’t even give you a number [of missed calls],” Lonzo shared on What An Experience. “It took a long time to go through it. It was mostly a lot of texts, though. Cause the calls, I wasn’t answering obviously, you know, people don’t use the voice machine no more. You get a couple of voice memos, though. But most of it’s just a long text.”

Once Ball knew he would soon become the newest member of the Cavs, he was ecstatic but soon ran into a conundrum. Lonzo has worn the number two jersey for the entirety of his career, but when the trade first broke, it wasn’t available. So, he instead decided on a much more unconventional jersey number, 97.

“This what happened … Cause at the time Ty Jerome was there. He had two. I’m like, ‘Alright, if I can’t get two, I’mma get nine, ’cause that’s my second number, right?” Lonzo continued. “And then I wanna say [Jaylon] Tyson got nine. Two and nine was taken. So I’m like, ‘S**t, if I gotta pick a third number, I’m gonna go 97.”

“It’s so nasty, it’s tough,” Lonzo’s brother, LiAngelo commented on the decision. Ball’s other cohosts were less impressed by his number choice, but it ended up not mattering anyway. Lonzo didn’t have to wait too long after being traded for his favorite number to open back up.

After claiming he was never given the option to return to Cleveland, Ty Jerome signed with the Memphis Grizzlies in free agency. So, despite the mental gymnastics Lonzo went through to decide on a new number, he’ll be back repping the jersey he wanted all along.