Despite being a member of the Boston Celtics for more than a month, German point guard Dennis Schroder still hasn’t picked the number he’ll wear on his back for the 2021-22 NBA season. So he decided to get creative and let fans choose a jersey number for him through his app DS17.
In normal circumstances, Schroder would take his usual number 17, which he wore so far in the NBA, and dons with the German national team. However, since this number is retired with the Celtics in honor of the franchise legend John Havlicek, the 27-year-old guard is forced to take a different route.
The options that Schroder gave his fans are numbers 71, 96, 8, 80, and 84.
As Dennis Schroder points out on his app, he would be at least open to 96. The reason for this is that the number could be associated with soccer club Hannover 96, who are the biggest rivals to Schroder’s hometown team of Eintracht Braunschweig.
However, it turns out that Schroder’s plea already backfired. Mark J. Rebilas of USA TODAY Sports points out that Hannover 96 fans have already flocked to the DS17 app and have caused number 96 to be the overwhelming leader so far.
It remains to be seen whether Schroder goes through with his plan even if number 96 gets picked or decides to abandon the campaign and chooses the number himself.
