Why did Ron Artest change his number?

Metta Sandiford-Artest is a former professional basketball player from the United States. Ron Artest changed his number a couple of times throughout his career.

Ron Artest’s father wore 51 in high school, so he switched numbers and wore 15 in college at St. John’s, then again in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers.

He switched to 23 in 2002-2003 in honor of Michael Jordan. In 2004-2005, he changed to 91 in honor of Dennis Rodman, which was appropriate given that this was the year of “The Malice at The Palace.”

When Artest was traded to the Sacramento Kings, he changed his number to 93 because it represented the letter Q and an uppercase B, which stood for Queensbridge, the housing project where he grew up, according to Artest.

When Artest was traded to the Houston Rockets, he naturally wore 96 because it was a Q and a lower case b for Queensbridge.

Then, as a Los Angeles Laker last season, Artest chose 37 because that’s how many weeks Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” spent atop the Billboard charts.