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NBA Countdown: Which player wore No. 50 best in league history?

Which NBA player wore No. 50 best?
Which NBA player wore No. 50 best?

We are inside of two months until the start of the 2019-20 NBA season, when the league’s many new superstar pairings will finally be unveiled. What better way to pass the time than to count down these final 55 days by arguing over who wore each jersey number best until we reach 00.

There are currently 50 days until the season opener on Oct. 22. So, who wore No. 50 best?

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Shoutouts

Bimbo Coles, for being named Bimbo Coles.

Tyler Hansbrough, who always looked mad to be wearing No. 50.

Tito Horford, father of Al Horford.

Eddie House, a champion.

Goo Kennedy and John Mandic, an unfortunately named duo.

Steve Mix, who made an All-Star team while wearing No. 50 for the Philadelphia 76ers in 1975, fell just shy of being a challenger to this jersey number throne.

Emeka Okafor, a very good player.

Bryant Reeves and Mike Sweetney, a couple round mounds of fun.

Caveats

Darryl Dawkins, who only wore 50 in his final two seasons on the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons, the last of which ended in a title to which he did not contribute statistically.

Ed Macauley, a Hall of Famer and champion whose best seasons came between stints in a No. 50 jersey, which is why the Boston Celtics retired his No. 22.

Theo Ratliff, Jeff Ruland, Otis Thorpe and Skip Thoren, who all wore 50 at one point and made an All-Star roster (Thoren in the ABA), but never at the same time.

Currently

Salah Mejri, the ever-intriguing 7-foot-2 Tunisian on the Dallas Mavericks, is the active jersey champ, if only because he was the only player wearing 50 last season who was not assigned to the G League. And even he was waived at one point.

Challengers

Corey Maggette wore No. 50 for all but one of his 14 NBA seasons, averaged 20 points per game over a seven-year stretch and is still repping No. 50 in the BIG3 as the reigning MVP and champion of Ice Cube’s three-on-three basketball league.

Zach Randolph, a two-time All-Star, 2011 All-NBA selection and the 2004 Most Improved Player, wore No. 50 for five different teams over a 17-year career. And he could definitely put the jersey back on right now and get you a bucket in the post.

Ralph Sampson, the No. 1 overall pick in 1983 and an All-Star in each of his first four seasons, could have been the jersey champion had knee problems not put a premature end to the Twin Towers and the 7-foot-4 stretch center’s career.

The Jersey Champion

David Robinson is the easiest of choices. The 1995 MVP, 1992 Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time champion, he is one of the most underrated players in NBA history — a scoring, rebounding and blocks champion who was ushered into the Hall of Fame as soon as possible and had his No. 50 retired in San Antonio Spurs.

A salute to The Admiral.

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Ben Rohrbach is a staff writer for Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @brohrbach