Bethel, Georgetown, and a number that stayed
Iverson played football and basketball at Bethel High School in Hampton, Virginia (1990-93). He wore #3 in both sports. He was Virginia’s Mr. Basketball as a junior in 1992 and was on track to become the most-recruited prep prospect in the country before a 1993 Hampton bowling-alley brawl led to a felony conviction. He served 4 months at Newport News City Farm before Governor Doug Wilder granted him clemency in December 1993.
He attended Georgetown from 1994-96 under coach John Thompson. Thompson assigned him #3 as a freshman because Georgetown’s existing #3 had graduated. Iverson averaged 23.0 points per game as a sophomore — the highest single-season average in Georgetown history — and entered the 1996 NBA Draft. He kept #3 with the Philadelphia 76ers, who took him #1 overall.
The Iverson #3 across 14 NBA seasons
Iverson played for: Philadelphia 76ers (1996-2006), Denver Nuggets (2006-08), Detroit Pistons (2008-09), Memphis Grizzlies (2009), and Philadelphia 76ers again (2009-10). In every stop, he wore #3. The Nuggets had to negotiate with then-#3 Eduardo Najera in 2006; Najera switched to #14. The Pistons had to negotiate with #3 Rodney Stuckey in 2008; Stuckey switched to #3 became #6 to make room.
Iverson’s #3 became one of the most-iconic NBA numbers of the 2000s. The Reebok Answer signature shoe line was branded with #3. The arm sleeve he popularized in 2000 was sold with #3 prominently. He won the 2001 NBA MVP wearing #3 — the smallest player (officially 6’0″, actually closer to 5’10”) to win the award since 1990.
Hall of Fame and #3 retirement
The Philadelphia 76ers retired Iverson’s #3 jersey on March 1, 2014 in a halftime ceremony at the Wells Fargo Center. The ceremony attracted Larry Brown, Aaron McKie, Eric Snow, and other 76ers teammates. Iverson spoke for 22 minutes and thanked his Bethel High coach, his Georgetown coach John Thompson, and 76ers GM Larry Brown by name.
Iverson was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2016. Bethel High retired his #3 in both football and basketball jerseys in 2017. Georgetown retired his college #3 in 2017 as well. He’s one of the few NBA players whose number has been retired at the high school, college, AND professional level — only Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, and a handful of others share that honor.
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Wayne Gretzky 99: The Story Behind the Number Why Aaron Judge Wears #99 — A Spring-Training Default Why Derek Jeter Wore #2 — A Yankees Last Single-Digit Why Did Michael Jordan Wear 23?Background facts cross-referenced with the Wikipedia article on Allen Iverson and Pro-Football-Reference / Basketball-Reference public records.