Updated Aug. 7, 2026, 6:11 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
After wearing the same jersey number for his basketball career, Darius Acuff Jr. will continue that trend when he takes the court next season with the Sacramento Kings<\/a>.<\/p>\n Acuff wore No. 5 throughout high school at Cass Tech in Detroit and at the IMG Academy in Florida. He also wore it as a freshman last season at Arkansas, helping lead the Razorbacks to their second straight appearance in the Sweet 16.<\/p>\n The No. 7 overall pick has worn No. 5 because his father, Darius Sr., wore it at Eastern Kentucky during the 1998-99 season. He began training with him at a young age, and he has vowed to continue to honor him each time he takes the court.<\/p>\n “I always wore it my whole life,” Acuff said last month, via the NBA on X<\/a>. “Pops wore it, so ever since I was little, I’ve been wearing it because of him. That’s my dad. He has been there my whole life. Every step of the way, he taught me everything I know about the game, so why not try to pay tribute to him?”<\/p>\n Acuff was a consensus first-team All-American last season, averaging 23.5 points, 6.4 assists and 3.1 rebounds while shooting 44% from 3-point range. He ranked third in the country in points (845) and seventh in assists (232), both of which were single-season program records.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n The 19-year-old debuted with the Kings in summer league, averaging 20.8 points, 4.6 assists, 1.6 rebounds, one steal and one block while shooting 35% from the field in five games. He scored 20 or more points three times, including a 26-point performance on July 14.<\/p>\n Acuff had the opportunity to get acquainted with several teammates last month, including Dylan Cardwell, Nique Clifford and Alex Karaban. He is expected to play a significant role for the team and enters with\u00a0the fifth-best odds<\/a>\u00a0for Rookie of the Year.<\/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:\u00a0AJ Dybantsa<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Darryn Peterson<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Cameron Boozer<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Caleb Wilson<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Keaton Wagler<\/a> | Mikel Brown Jr.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated Aug. 7, 2026, 6:11 p.m. ET After wearing the same jersey number for his basketball career, Darius…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3792],"tags":[72400,7,4056,6,986,477,4055,90348,72761,72762,72404,96830,96831,72444,72422,72405,72414,72406,72403],"class_list":["post-806468","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento-kings","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-kings","tag-nba","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-kings","tag-sacramentokings","tag-sourcerookie-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarookie","tag-sstsnrookie","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcass-technical-high-school","tag-tagimg-academy","tag-tagnational-sports","tag-tagnba","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsacramento-kings","tag-tagsports-news","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117058095238361900","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806468","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=806468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}