Luke Kornet’s jersey quantity alternative harkens reminiscences of one other beloved Spurs middle

With the NBA’s Free Company Moratorium interval over, free brokers can formally begin signing with the their new groups. That features Luke Kornet, the 7’1” middle the Spurs signed away from the Boston Celtics on a 4-year, $41 million deal.

The announcement of the signing additionally consists of the little tidbit that Kornet will put on quantity 7 for the Spurs. Whereas that will appear insignificant, we’ve appeared the legacy of the jersey numbers chosen by the Spurs’ rookies right this moment, so why not check out #7 as effectively? The excellent news is it doesn’t carry the identical notoriety amongst Spurs followers as numbers 2 and 11 do. In reality, regardless of 14 completely different Spurs carrying it throughout the years — most not too long ago David Duke, Jr., Josh Richardson, Gorgui Dieng, and Chimezie Metu — virtually all have been merely a blip on the radar within the grand scheme of Spurs historical past.

Nevertheless, there’s one title that stands out amongst all of the #7’s, and it’s a participant whose comparability to Kornet is each correct and doubtless one Spurs followers would love: Fabricio Oberto. Oberto signed with the Spurs forward of the 2005-06 season and stayed on for 4 seasons, together with being the beginning middle for his or her 2007 championship group. Regardless of enjoying an integral function, his numbers weren’t all that spectacular, peaking at 4.8 factors, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists within the 2007-08 season, by which he averaged 20 minutes per sport whereas enjoying in all 82 video games, 64 as a starter.

Now you might be considering to your self, “Huh, I keep in mind Fabo as being rather a lot higher than that,” and you’d be proper. He was a chief instance of a participant who knew his function and crammed it very effectively with out ever making an attempt to do an excessive amount of. Tim Duncan was the star, and Oberto was there to assist him. That ought to sound extraordinarily acquainted to what the Spurs have been in search of this summer season of their seek for a backup middle to assist Victor Wembanyama.

Kornet’s numbers are fairly much like Oberto’s. His profession averages of 5.2 factors, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists additionally don’t bounce off the web page, however he’s a strong rim protector, and, like Oberto, he is aware of his function and is a traditional case of stats not telling the complete story. He additionally has that very same championship pedigree after enjoying a key backup function to Kristaps Porzingis in the course of the Celtics’ 2024 championship run. Kornet ought to fill that very same function behind Wemby, and similar to Oberto and Duncan, they need to additionally have the ability to play alongside one another as effectively — whichever the matchup requires.

Oberto is such a beloved determine in Spurs historical past that regardless of merely being a task participant, he nonetheless represents large footwear to fill. Nevertheless, the similarities he and Kornet share — reminiscent of play model, circumstance, projected function, and many others. — makes it appear solely proper that #7 is Kornet’s jersey of alternative. It’s the primary time he’s worn that quantity within the NBA, and until he’s requested to clarify why he selected it*, it’s enjoyable to suppose that possibly he’s out to emulate one other former Spurs middle whose function he can relate to and whom he shares a shocking variety of similarities to. If Kornet is the Spurs’ subsequent Fabo, nobody will complain.

*UPDATE: Kornet joked (admitted?) to the media that he selected #7 as a result of hopes to be a 3rd of the participant Duncan was. That works too!