Best player by uniform number of all time (across all sports)

[Devizier]

Inspired by the Mitchell and Ness thread in the NFL forum. They also have an NBA edition. Here they are, side by side:
 

 
SI ran a piece on NHL players, and there's plenty around on MLB by uniform number. Baseball-reference even has a searchable/rankable database by number.
 
So the question is, across sports, who are the best players by uniform number of all time?

 

[Import78]

I'm interested to see the conversation around number 10.  Will there be a more contested number than 10?  Just quickly off the top of my head, I'm sure there are others I'm missing:
 
Pele
Maradonna
Messi
Ronaldhino

 

[mandro ramtinez]

Inspired by the Mitchell and Ness thread in the NFL forum. They also have an NBA edition. Here they are, side by side:
 

 
SI ran a piece on NHL players, and there's plenty around on MLB by uniform number. Baseball-reference even has a searchable/rankable database by number.
 
So the question is, across sports, who are the best players by uniform number of all time?

Lebron has worn two numbers in his career and he will almost definitely never be considered the greatest basketball player to wear either 6 or 23.  Between James and Bird, two of the top 10 players ever don't make this list.

 

[JoeyBelle]

There's an article on Qlik Technology's website that breaks down all of the possible players by jersey numbers, which stemmed from an article on Boston.com earlier this year. Plug: I am Pete's dad. Take it easy on him -he's six.

 

[CoRP]

Ron Artest...greatest player ever.
 
That MLB list has Gibson for #45.

 

[ifmanis5]

Scott Pollard... twice. Also not seeing Bird there makes me ill.

 

[Lose Remerswaal]

There's an article on Qlik Technology's website that breaks down all of the possible players by jersey numbers, which stemmed from an article on Boston.com earlier this year. Plug: I am Pete's dad. Take it easy on him -he's six.

 
That's pretty cool

 

[Devizier]

There's an article on Qlik Technology's website that breaks down all of the possible players by jersey numbers, which stemmed from an article on Boston.com earlier this year. Plug: I am Pete's dad. Take it easy on him -he's six.

 
Your kid's list is pretty good!

 

[Devizier]

Let's start with an easy one -- 00.
 
I think it comes down to Parish versus Jim Otto, since there's no one that really comes close from the other sports.
 
I would go with Parish, because I'm a raging homer, but Otto was the face of the Raiders during his time there, and a 13X all-star. Hard to argue against that.

 

[wade boggs chicken dinner]

Definitely have to agree with #41.  Neither Dirk nor Tom Seaver could hold Olynyk's jock.

 

[Bozo Texino]

Orr's gotta be over Gehrig, right?  For some reason, that's the one that popped up in my head first.