Aug. 3, 2026, 12:14 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
After wearing the same jersey number in high school and college, Cameron Boozer will begin his career with the Memphis Grizzlies<\/a> sporting a new look on the court.<\/p>\n Boozer donned No. 12 at Christopher Columbus High School in Miami and at Duke last season. Though Ja Morant has since been traded to Portland, the two-time All-Star initially occupied No. 12, which forced Boozer to select a number for his rookie campaign.<\/p>\n Figuring it likely would have been difficult to pry No. 12 away from Morant, Boozer initially tossed around a few possibilities on draft night, including Nos. 2 or 21. He instead pivoted from those two choices to go with another number.<\/p>\n \u201cThe No. 27, my mom wore it in college playing volleyball,” Boozer said during an introductory press conference in Memphis on June 25<\/a>. “So that\u2019s why I chose that number.\u201d<\/p>\n Boozer was the consensus National Player of the Year, averaging 22.5 points, 10.2 rebounds and 4.1 assists while shooting 39.1% from 3-point range. He is\u00a0the only freshman in history<\/a>\u00a0to tally at least 700 points, 300 rebounds and 100 assists in a single season.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The No. 3 overall pick debuted with the Grizzlies in the NBA Summer League, averaging 18.5 points, eight rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.8 steals in six appearances. He was named to the All-Summer League first team, ranking second in points (111) among all players in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n Boozer is the early front-runner to win Rookie of the Year after a dazzling showing in the desert last month. He enters next season with tremendous hype and should be in store for a productive first season in the league with the Grizzlies.<\/p>\n Note:\u00a0Throughout August, Rookie Wire is looking at every first-round pick and why each player selected their respective jersey number as they make the jump to the NBA.<\/p>\n Previous: AJ Dybantsa<\/a> | Darryn Peterson<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 3, 2026, 12:14 p.m. ET After wearing the same jersey number in high school and college, Cameron…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":804087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3795],"tags":[72400,7,294,293,177,4070,6,90348,72761,72762,72404,72452,72490,72444,72422,72405,72406,72403],"class_list":["post-804086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-memphis-grizzlies","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-grizzlies","tag-memphis","tag-memphis-grizzlies","tag-memphisgrizzlies","tag-nba","tag-sourcerookie-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarookie","tag-sstsnrookie","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcollege-sports","tag-tagmemphis-grizzlies","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117041344269869592","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=804086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/804086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/804087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=804086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=804086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=804086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}