Aug. 18, 2026, 12:22 p.m. ET<\/p>\n
After wearing several jersey numbers over the years, Christian Anderson Jr. will have a new look when he takes the court for his rookie campaign with the Charlotte Hornets<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anderson, born in Atlanta, wore No. 3 in high school at the Lovett School in Georgia and No. 1 at the Oak Hill Academy in Virginia. With those two numbers taken at Texas Tech, Anderson went with No. 4 for his two seasons with the Red Raiders.<\/p>\n The 18th overall pick ultimately opted to wear No. 5 with the Hornets, with No. 4 occupied by second-year guard Sion James. He will be the 13th player in franchise history to wear it, and the first since Mark Williams.<\/p>\n Anderson was a third-team All-American last season, averaging 18.5 points, 7.4 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 steals while shooting 41.5% from 3-point range. He ranked fifth in the country in total assists (244) and 11th in minutes (1,266).<\/p>\n The 20-year-old debuted with the Hornets in summer league, averaging 10.4 points, 4.2 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 1.2 steals while shooting 31.5% from the field in five games. He finished in double figures three times, including an 18-point, eight-assist effort on July 17.<\/p>\n Need a news break? Check out the all new PLAY hub with puzzles, games and more!<\/a><\/p>\n Anderson was highly touted in the draft this year because of his shooting and ability to make plays for his teammates.\u00a0The team was ecstatic to add him to the roster, along with fellow first-rounder Hannes Steinbach, and is eager to see him take the court.<\/p>\n Throughout 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>\u00a0|\u00a0Mikel Brown Jr.<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Darius Acuff Jr.<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Kingston Flemings<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Morez Johnson Jr.<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Brayden Burries<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Yaxel Lendeborg<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Aday Mara<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Nate Ament<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Hannes Steinbach<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Dailyn Swain<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Bennett Stirtz<\/a> | Ebuka Okorie<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Aug. 18, 2026, 12:22 p.m. ET After wearing several jersey numbers over the years, Christian Anderson Jr. will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":815445,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3777],"tags":[72400,7,684,473,3878,685,6,90348,72761,72762,72404,72468,72405,72406,77449,72403],"class_list":["post-815444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-charlotte-hornets","tag-accessfree","tag-basketball","tag-charlotte","tag-charlotte-hornets","tag-charlottehornets","tag-hornets","tag-nba","tag-sourcerookie-wire","tag-sstssportsnbarookie","tag-sstsnrookie","tag-tagbasketball","tag-tagcharlotte-hornets","tag-tagoverall-positive","tag-tagsports-news","tag-tagtexas-tech-university","tag-typestory"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117120333456629571","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815444","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=815444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/815444\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/815445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=815444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=815444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=815444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}