We've discussed this at length previously. Apparently he wants to use his high school number, which wasn't available at the time, from what we've been able to gather. It has nothing to do with MJ and everything to do with selling more jerseys.
wouldn't surprise me
Most likely is that he wanted to prove his true jersey sale figures. His 8 jersey had been the same for 7 years and LA hardly ever changes the style of its uniforms and will never change its colors or logo. Because of this, how many 8 jerseys can the average fanboy buy? By changing his number, we will have a clearer picture of how he compares with his contemporaries in jersey sales.
And I suspect he just might be a tad disappointed. But that's just a guess.
Kobe's jersey sales were down last year. What better way to revive them than to pick a new number?
And #4 is about three lower than Kobe wants to be...
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4 is three lower than 1, at least when you're talking about sales rankings, etc.