When you consider the role of numbers in professional sports, you most likely think about the statistical trends that determine an MLB club's batting order against a certain pitcher, or the number behind the answer to a particular bit of sports trivia.
Numbers are everywhere in sports, including in its most basic function: identifying a player on a team's roster. Outside the daily operations within a franchise, the number on a player's jersey carries little value unless that player earns it.
Throughout the history of the NFL, NHL, MLB and NBA, the greatest players transformed a simple number into something more symbolic, something almost magical. No. 23 isn't just any number—it's the number that belongs to the greatest basketball player in NBA history, Michael Jordan.
Here are the greatest players ever to wear each number, from 00 to 99, in any sport.