The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Nance to wear father’s number with Cavs
Larry Nance Jr. on Feb. 22, like a teenager’s first kiss, enjoyed a thrill it will be impossible for him to every ever experience again — his first home game as a Cavalier with his famous father in attendance.
Nance, along with Jordan Clarkson, George Hill and Rodney Hood, were acquired on Feb. 8 at the trading deadline in a series of franchise-changing deals by Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman.
Nance’s father, Larry Nance, was a two-time AllStar playing for the Cavaliers from February 1988 through the end of the 1993-94 season. The elder Nance’s jersey was retired on Jan. 30, 1995, when his son was 2 ½ years old, and somewhere there is a picture of Larry Sr. holding his son during the ceremony. The white banner with the blue “22” hangs from the rafters of The Q as one of the seven numbers retired by the Cavaliers.
Larry Nance Sr. remains one of the most revered players in franchise history, 24 years after he last played for the Cavs, and soon his son will have the honor of wearing his father’s number.
A little more than an hour before the Cavaliers hosted the Washington Wizards, the younger Nance announced that beginning next week he will start wearing “22.” He will continue to wear 24 until the new uniforms are ready.
The number change might not be a big deal to some fans, but it is a big deal to Larry Nance Jr. His eyes misted over as he stood in the Cavs’ locker room.
“The guys at the Cavs and the league have done a great job in granting my wishes and fulfilling my dream,” Nance said. “I’ll be wearing No. 22 from here on out and my Dad’s jersey will get to stay retired in the rafters.
“I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been wearing 22 my whole life. To get to wear it for the Cleveland Cavaliers is beyond a dream. I did not want to do it if my dad’s jersey had to come down.”
The Nance family still lives in Richfield, not far from where Larry Nance, now 59, starred at the Coliseum.
The best part of the story is this isn’t some sentimental journey linking the past to the present in order to sell a couple extra tickets. Altman traded Isaiah Thomas, Channing Frye and the Cavs’ own 2018 first-round pick to the Lakers on Feb. 8 for Nance and Clarkson because Clarkson and Nance can play.
Nance entered the game against the Wizards 1:52 left in the first quarter. He scored the first Cavs basket of the second quarter on a dunk and followed that up with another dunk. He grabbed three rebounds in eight minutes.
“He’s a great passer and very athletic,” Coach Tyronn Lue said of Nance in a pregame news conference. “He’s a very good offensive rebounder. He does a good job protecting the paint — his verticality at the rim, blocking shots, challenging shots is big. And he can run the floor.
“For a (center), the way the game is changing, to be a good passer, dynamic roller, he fits that mode.”
The Cavaliers needed the infusion of youth and energy the trade acquisitions are providing. Nance said that as a member of the Lakers he would get pumped to play at The Q in front of his family. Now he is part of something he believes can be special with the Cavaliers, and not just because of the pending number change.
But here is an interesting question probably no team has ever faced: What happens if Larry Nance Jr. plays so well that someday his jersey is retired?
To have the same number retired twice would indeed be a franchise first.