Preface:
In the basketball world, in order to recognize a player's great contribution to the team in his basketball career, many teams often retire the jersey number he wore when he was a player at the same time as he retires, which is a great honor for both the player and the team. As great as Bill Russell, after his death due to illness this year, the NBA directly discussed with 30 teams in the league in order to commemorate this pioneer, and decided to seal the No. 6 jersey of all teams. In addition, many teams in the league have more or less banner figures in team history, and they also enjoy the honor of retired jerseys after their retirement. However, there are exceptions to everything, there are still 3 teams that have not a single shirt to retire, so let's take a look at which three teams it is.
Toronto Raptors
A full 27 years have passed since the establishment of the team in 1995, but compared with many old teams, the Raptors' team history is indeed not long, which also leads to their team heritage and culture, not yet mature enough, and in Toronto, they are currently the only team outside the United States, and the attention is relatively not as great as that of local teams. As a result, to this day, no player has been able to get the honor of retiring from the jersey. Looking at the history of the Raptors, the first real star is Vince Carter, under the leadership of Carter, the Raptors rose rapidly and once ranked in the playoffs, especially in the 00-01 season, he averaged 27.6 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.9 assists per game, leading the team to the Eastern Conference semifinals for a time. However, in the end, falling out with the team made it difficult for Carter to get the opportunity to retire his jersey. The second-generation leader, Chris Bosh, although he grew into one of the NBA's top power forwards at the time, made limited contributions to the team, and his No. 4 jersey is now worn by Scottie Barnes.
However, with the successful victory in 2019, the Raptors also made history, which allowed them to have their own championship heritage, and among that group of players, Lowry played for the Raptors for 9 seasons, and gradually grew into an All-Star, leading the team to complete the transformation from fish belly to championship step by step, he is definitely the banner of Toronto, once Lowry retires, his jersey is likely to be sealed. In addition, although Leonard has only played for one season, his performance against the sky may also be able to get the honor of jersey retirement. So it's only a matter of time before the Raptors do.
Orlando Magic
The Magic also entered the NBA in the late eighties, their team history is not long, but compared to the Raptors, the early years of the Magic can be described as the "protagonist" script, they got the two hottest rookies at the time, Shaquille O'Neal and Anfini Hardaway, a super combination inside and out, so that the Magic achieved a 57-25 Eastern Conference first record in 1995, and reached the Finals historically, you know that they were only 6 years old at that time. However, the management's poor operation eventually cost them O'Neal, and Hardaway's injury risk also made the Magic finally abandon him. However, the good luck of magic did not dissipate.
In the 2004 draft, they used the top pick to get a super center again, that is, Dwight Howard, Howard has improved considerably every year, he has a dominant performance at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, which allowed him to successfully succeed O'Neal and become the first center in the league later, winning DPOY 3 times at his peak, All-Star, First Team, First Defense and other honors were even softer, but he, like O'Neal that year, eventually tore his face with the management because of various contradictions, was traded to the Lakers. To be fair, O'Neal and Howard have made great contributions to the team, and their historical status is not low, they are fully qualified to retire their jerseys, but unfortunately because of the conflict with the team at that time, this possibility is almost impossible. Now, they can only hope that Paolo Banchero will lead the magic revival, otherwise the only thing hanging over their arena will be the retired No. 6 jersey that commemorates the fans.
Los Angeles Clippers
Finally, there is one team that can retire without a player's jersey, and that is the Los Angeles Clippers. Compared with the Magic and Raptors, the Clippers can be said to be one of the old teams in the NBA, formerly known as the Buffalo Braves, they have played in the NBA for 52 years after moving to Los Angeles in 1985, and there are many famous players in the history of the team, such as MVP Bob McAdoo, Blake Griffin, Chris Paul, and now George and Leonard, but the more embarrassing point is that although the Clippers injected a lot of money after getting rid of miserly owner Sterling, But they have never been able to play satisfactorily enough, especially in the era of Paul and Griffin, who led the Clippers to the playoffs every year, but could not break through the nightmare of the Western Conference semifinals, and the way to leave the team was unpleasant, which made it difficult to retire the jerseys of these two star players. George and Leonard have not been playing for a long time, and they have not played as expected, so it seems that it is also difficult to get the possibility of retiring the jersey now.