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
The Blueblood Standard
Those who oppose retiring MacLean’s jersey would point out that, at a program as storied as UCLA Basketball’s, “just” scoring the most points in school history isn’t enough. Thus, the first context examines the leading scorers who played for other bluebloods. I evaluated the 10 programs with the highest all-time win percentages in D1. This is what I found:
- Dan Issel‘s Kentucky jersey: retired
- Tyler Hansbrough‘s UNC jersey: retired
- Danny Manning‘s Kansas jersey: retired
- J.J. Redick‘s Duke jersey: retired
- Lawrence Moten‘s Syracuse jersey: NOT RETIRED (more on this shortly)
- Don MacLean’s UCLA jersey: NOT RETIRED (hopefully you knew that by now)
- Darrell Griffith‘s Louisville jersey: retired
- Surprise #1: Western Kentucky is on this list. Surprise #2: Jim McDaniels and Courtney Lee are co-leaders with exactly 2,238 points each. The Hilltoppers retired both of their jerseys.
- Sean Elliott‘s Arizona jersey: retired
- Chris Mullin‘s St. John’s jersey: retired
The most striking non-WKU-related thing about that list is that every one of those programs retired their leading scorer’s jersey except for UCLA and Syracuse. Furthermore, UCLA is the only program on that list that didn’t at least try to do so (Syracuse told Moten that his jersey was going up and then it never happened because of some strange scheduling conflict that happened three years ago).
If you have some reservations about criteria that says Western Kentucky is a blueblood, feel free to evaluate the top 10 programs in terms of overall wins. Swap out Louisville, WKU, and Arizona for Temple, Notre Dame, and Indiana. However, you’ll find that the latter two programs have a no-retiring-jerseys policy.
Verdict: MacLean gets his jersey retired 8* times out of 10 (*9 if you include Syracuse’s effort).
Next: The Conference Standard
The Conference Standard
The second standard takes into account that MacLean isn’t just the all-time leading scorer for his team, but his entire conference. It’s a record that has stood the test of time–this season will mark the 25th consecutive year in which MacLean is the all time leading scorer in Pac-10/Pac-12 history.
I wanted to find out if being the all-time leading scorer of a conference for a quarter century calls for a jersey retirement, so I did some painstaking research on every single person who holds that distinction to this day, and has done so since at least 1992. Below is a list from Wikipedia of the 17 players who qualify under this standard.
Mull over this list for a bit. I poured over newspaper articles, press releases, Wikipedia pages, and media guides. I found the West Coast Conference and the East Coast Conference, looked at big-name schools like LSU and lesser-known ones like Wagner, and spent more time than I care to admit trying to find the Delaware State Hornets Hall of Fame.
The American South Conference lasted about as long as the actual American South did in the Civil War (4 years). At least Brooks’ omission from the rafters is understandable.
Despite the wide-ranging variety of this diverse bunch, I discovered that practically every single person on that list had their jersey retired. Every. Single. One.
The only exception other than Don MacLean was Kevin Brooks. Kevin Brooks holds the record for a conference that no longer exists playing for Southwestern Louisiana, which is no longer called Southwestern Louisiana (shoutout to the Ragin’ Cajuns of Louisana-Lafayette). The American South Conference lasted about as long as the actual American South did in the Civil War (4 years). At least Brooks’ omission from the rafters is understandable.
Verdict: MacLean gets his jersey retired 15 times out of 17* (*16 if you disregard the American South Conference).
Side note – I didn’t manually list and source every single player on this list like I did for the blueblood standard because it would have taken too long. If you’d like me to show you the receipts or think it’d be funny to make me dive into the abyss of my search history, hit me up on Twitter and I’ll send you the list of sources.)
Next: The Professional Standard
The Professional Standard
Perhaps you remain unmoved by the choices of other lowly college programs who don’t have 11 national championships. Maybe it’s better to compare UCLA Basketball to professional teams, so I did that too.
I went through all 30 NBA franchises to see if being the best scorer in team history warrants a jersey retirment. 10 franchises’ can’t retire their leading scorer’s jersey yet, as those leaders played in the NBA last season. Of the remaining 20 teams, all but two had bestowed that honor upon their all-time leading scorer.
Even at the professional level, if someone is the all-time leader in points scored for their franchise, a jersey retirement is almost guaranteed.
Moreover, those two franchises–the Los Angeles Clippers and the Charlotte Hornets–have never retired a jersey to honor basketball prowess. Taylor Swift has more honors near the ceiling of the Staples Center than the Clippers. The Hornets have a retired a jersey, but only under specific, tragic circumstances.
So even at the professional level, if someone is the all-time leader in points scored for their franchise, a jersey retirement is almost guaranteed.
Verdict: MacLean gets his jersey retired 18 times out of 20.
Resetting the Standard
Arguably the strongest case against retiring MacLean’s jersey is that the UCLA Basketball program already has specific criteria to meet for a player to be eligible to have their name in the rafters of Pauley Pavilion:
- Be a three-time consensus All-American OR
- Be a consensus National Player of the Year OR
- Get inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame
MacLean doesn’t qualify by UCLA’s standards, but he does qualify by everyone else’s. NBA teams and college basketball programs–both the prestigious ones and the obscure ones–have repeatedly demonstrated that MacLean’s accomplishments make him qualified for this honor.
UCLA may have standards, but they ought to be superseded by the standards set by the rest of the basketball world. To believe otherwise is to favor a viewpoint tinged with the hubris that comes with 11 national championships.
The slippery slope is a logical fallacy. Making an exception for MacLean or expanding the criteria will not bring upon the jersey retirement apocalypse. Besides, UCLA has expanded the prerequisites numerous times in the past.
Originally, there was no way to get your number retired if you weren’t a three-time consensus All-American. If the Bruins had never modified their draconian restrictions, only Bill Walton and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar would have received the honor. The absences of jerseys belonging to Walt Hazzard, Sidney Wicks, and Gail Goodrich would be glaring.
The absence of MacLean’s jersey is just as glaring. It’s time to fix that.
Next: Rapid-Fire Rebuttal
Rapid-Fire Rebuttal
It would be remiss of me to write this piece without addressing the many other valid reasons for opposing the retirement of MacLean’s jersey.
Almost every Bruin to have their jersey retired won a championship, and the only guys who didn’t are in the Hall of Fame. MacLean never won a championship, and he isn’t in the Hall of Fame.
We’re talking about retiring numbers at UCLA, so it’s only fair that players are judged based on their UCLA Basketball careers. UCLA only retired Reggie Miller‘s number because he was incredible in the NBA–he never brought a title back to Westwood (unless you count the NIT).
MacLean was First Team All-Pac-10 three times, one more than Miller. MacLean was a Second Team All-American, while Miller was Third Team. Don made the NCAA Tournament in all four years at Westwood, going as far as the Elite Eight.
UCLA Bruins
Reggie only made the tournament once, and lost in the round of 32. Miller’s redeeming quality is that he’s in Hall of Fame, while MacLean’s is that he’s the all-time leading scorer. If UCLA retired Reggie Miller’s jersey, then they should be able to do the same with Don MacClean’s.
Why should we glorify the first man in NBA history to receive a suspension for steroid use?
MacLean claimed that he had taken a supplement that happened to contain a banned substance while recovering from an injury. I believe him, considering that steroids are nowhere near as advantageous and sought-after in basketball as they are in other sports. His suspension only lasted five games.
With all of that said, MacLean’s steroid ordeal is too insignificant to stand in the way of his jersey retirement. The only reason most people even remember that he took steroids is because Charles Barkley famously quipped, “I’ve seen Don MacLean naked, and he doesn’t use steroids”. Make of that what you will.
John Wooden opposed the practice of retiring numbers.
The damage has been done; 12 retired jerseys currently from the rafters in Pauley Pavilion. A 13th isn’t going to make Coach Wooden roll in his grave.
There are some sketchy circumstances surrounding MacLean’s decision to come to UCLA. MacLean’s high school coach accused UCLA of recruiting violations, and a former assistant coach at UCLA accused the school of cover-up.
Okay, yes, that’s true, but that’s more damning for Jim Harrick (the Head Coach at the time) than it is for MacLean. And if shady figures and NCAA violations are grounds for banishment from the rafters, there are quite a few jerseys that are up there right now that should probably taken down. Google a guy named Sam Gilbert. Here’s a just a taste of the big booster they called “Papa Sam,” via the Los Angeles Times.
The NCAA violations issue is a pandora’s box you won’t want to open when it comes to UCLA basketball legacies.
It’s not like the Bruins haven’t honored MacLean; he’s in the UCLA Basketball Hall of Fame. That seems like enough to me.
Next: Analyzing the UCLA Basketball Conference Schedule
Please refer to the first three paragraphs of this article. To retire one’s number is an incredibly high honor. After 25 years and 2,608 points, I’d say it’s an honor that MacLean deserves.