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UCLA Basketball: Should UCLA Retire Don MacLean’s Jersey? – An Investigation

By Jake Liker

Dec 10, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Pac-12 Networks broadcaster and analyst Don MacLean (left) interviews UCLA Bruins guard Norman Powell (4) after the game against the UC Riverside Highlanders at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA defeated UC Riverside 77-66. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 10, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Pac-12 Networks broadcaster and analyst Don MacLean (left) interviews UCLA Bruins guard Norman Powell (4) after the game against the UC Riverside Highlanders at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA defeated UC Riverside 77-66. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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Dec 10, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Pac-12 Networks broadcaster and analyst Don MacLean (left) interviews UCLA Bruins guard Norman Powell (4) after the game against the UC Riverside Highlanders at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA defeated UC Riverside 77-66. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 10, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Pac-12 Networks broadcaster and analyst Don MacLean (left) interviews UCLA Bruins guard Norman Powell (4) after the game against the UC Riverside Highlanders at Pauley Pavilion. UCLA defeated UC Riverside 77-66. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

Go Joe Bruin takes a look at the process of retiring jerseys and we asks if former UCLA Basketball player and the Pac-12’s all-time leading scorer Don Maclean should have his jersey hung in Pauley Pavilion.

The Numbers Games

Sports are, at their most elementary form, numbers games. If numbers didn’t exist or counting were to become extinct, you’d be hard-pressed to find an athletic competition that could go on, unless keeping score, winning, losing, standings, records, among many aspects of sport, aren’t of importance to you.

Take basketball for example: two teams with the same number of players who all have numbers on their uniforms, compete over a given number of periods, which each last the same number of minutes, to finish with the higher number of points. Offense is how a team tries to maximize their number of points. Defense is how a team tries minimize their opponent’s number of points.

I could go on, but you get the point (unless you’re playing defense, in which case you don’t get the point–you’re more focused on your opponent not getting the point).

It is fitting, then, that one of the greatest honors for an athlete is to have their jersey retired. To give one athlete eternal ownership of a number is a high form of praise in the context of sport, the ultimate numbers game.

Enter former UCLA Basketball player and the Pac-12 Conference’s all-time leading scorer Don MacLean.

Setting a Standard

To give one athlete eternal ownership of a number is a high form of praise in the context of sport, the ultimate numbers game.

In the context of basketball being strictly about numbers, Don MacLean is the greatest player in Bruin basketball history. He did more to maximize the number of points on UCLA’s side of the scoreboard than anyone else. In other words, he’s UCLA’s all-time leading point scorer.

Retiring MacLean’s number would be an appropriate tribute, yet his jersey is not among the 12 that adorn the walls of Pauley Pavilion. Is it time for that to change?

To figure this out, I looked throughout the basketball world to see if being an all-time leading scorer normally warrants a jersey retirement. I measured this using three different standards.

Next: The Blueblood Standard