Jared Dudley: The Perfect Signing for the Phoenix Suns

Jared Dudley: The Perfect Signing for the Phoenix Suns by Kyle Fleeger

The Phoenix Suns announced Brandon Knight has chosen to change his uniform number and will now wear No. 11.

Additionally, the team has announced uniform numbers for the team’s 2016 rookies: Dragan Bender will wear No. 3, Marquese Chriss will wear No. 0 and Tyler Ulis will wear No. 8.

While this announcement seemed uninteresting at the time it was made, controversy has since arrived.

The Suns signed former Phoenix fan favorite Jared Dudley to a 3-year/$30 million contract.

Dudley formerly wore the #3 while with the Suns, and has expressed clear interest in getting his number back. The conflict is the #3 is now being occupied by a 7’1 Croatian, who wants to keep the number; Dragan Bender.

What is Dudley’s plan to get the number back? As Randy Moss once said, “Straight cash homie”.

Here is Dudley making his initial offer on twitter:

I got 10k for him! https://t.co/DB954dQqXs — Jared Dudley (@JaredDudley619) July 2, 2016

It is not uncommon in any sport for players to buy numbers from each other.

Baseball player John Kruk once sold the No. 28 to teammate Mitch Williams for two cases of beer.

The highest price I could find a player paid to get a desired number was NFL All-Pro cornerback Darrell Revis. Fresh off a $13 million paycheck Revis had his sights set on No. 24.

Standing in his way was rookie safety Mark Barron, who had selected the number months earlier. Ultimately, Revis paid the safety $50,000 to make sure No. 24 was all his.

However, it doesn’t always go as smooth as planned.

According to a Bleacher Report article, NFL Running back Clinton Portis said he was willing to pay $40,000 to then teammate Ifeanyi Oxalate for the No. 26. However, the two ultimately ended up in court because of Portis failing to pay Ohalete, with Portis forced to pay $18,000.

Hopefully JD and Bender come to a quick resolution, That way, Suns fans can start buying Bender and Dudley jersey’s ASAP.