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NBA Countdown: Which player wore No. 55 best in league history?

Which NBA player wore No. 55 best?
Which NBA player wore No. 55 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 55 days until the season opener on Oct. 22. So, who wore No. 55 best?

Shoutouts

Jason Williams, a.k.a. White Chocolate, who never made an All-Star team but started at point guard for the 2006 NBA champion Miami Heat, might be the coolest player ever to wear No. 55.

Caveats

Dolph Schayes, a Hall of Famer, merely wore No. 55 for part of his rookie season.

Currently

E’Twaun Moore, a former second-round pick turned longtime role player for the New Orleans Pelicans, is the best active player wearing No. 55, almost by default, since only Delon Wright, Joakim Noah and Greg Monroe could pose a threat — and all three have swapped numbers.

Challengers

Roy Hibbert, a two-time All-Star and runner-up for 2014 Defensive Player of the Year, anchored an Indiana Pacers team that challenged LeBron James in back-to-back Eastern Conference finals, before the game passed slow-footed centers who could not effectively space the floor.

Kiki VanDeWeghe, a two-time All-Star whose average of 28 points per game from 1982-84 trailed only Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley, has a name you may recognize nowadays as the league’s disciplinary czar in every press release announcing major fines and suspensions.

Jayson Williams, a 1998 All-Star, retired due to injury before things went really awry.

The Jersey Champion

Dikembe Mutombo, the eight-time All-Star and four-time Defensive Player of the Year, is the only Hall of Famer to consistently wear No. 55 — and the only player ever to have the number retired, an honor that was bestowed upon him by both the Atlanta Hawks and Denver Nuggets.

Cue the finger wag.

Tune in tomorrow for No. 54, and be sure to let us know if we forgot to shout someone out.

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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

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