Bronny James Explains Inspiration Behind Lakers Jersey Number: ‘It’s a Very Important Thing to Me’

Bronny James held his introductory press conference with the Lakers on Tuesday afternoon, where he and 17th overall pick Dalton Knecht answered questions from a group of reporters with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka and new head coach JJ Redick sharing the stage with them.

One of the questions Bronny gets asked is why he’ll be wearing jersey number 9 when he plays for the Lakers next season. It turns out his inspiration for the jersey number comes from one of his favorite rappers.

“Juice (WRLD) was a huge part of me being able to stay calm in the situations that I went through,” James said. “I just honor him, especially because he passed away. It’s a big deal to me.”

Juice WRLD was a Chicago-area rapper who died in 2019 at the age of 21 after an accidental overdose. The rapper had the numbers “999” tattooed on his arm and frequently used them in his social media posts and music. In a 2019 interview with MTV News, he spoke about the significance of these numbers to him.

“If you believe in anything that has to do with the Bible, I think in the last book of the Bible, it says that 666 is the mark of the beast. And that’s Satan,” Juice WRLD said. “999 represents hell, the bad situation or the struggle that you’re going through and turning it into something positive.”

This message seems to have resonated with Bronny, as not only did he choose to wear the number 9 because of Juice WRLD, but he also has “999 LLJW” in his Instagram bio, which stands for “Long Live Juice WRLD.”

We’ll see Bronny wear that No. 9 jersey for the first time when he plays in the California Classic Summer League, which kicks off July 6. Redick confirmed at the press conference that both James and Knecht will play in the California Classic and Las Vegas Summer League throughout July.