Tim Thomas Should Change His Number

Retire Van Lier's #2 for rest of season

By TOM FORNELLI

Updated 11:30 AM CST, Sat, Mar 7, 2009

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Earlier this week on Tuesday night the Bulls began wearing a patch on the right shoulder of their uniforms to commemorate the lives of Johnny "Red" Kerr and Norm Van Lier, two Bulls legends who both passed away last week. The left half of the patch is red and, oddly enough, says "Red" in white letters. The right half is black and has the number 2 on it, Van Lier's number when he played for the Bulls.

It's a nice tribute to the two Bulls icons, but we noticed something while watching the Bulls beat the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night to take possession of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. See, in their first two games wearing the patch, Tim Thomas sat out with an injury. He played on Friday night, and that's when we realized that Thomas is wearing the number two while wearing the patch in Van Lier's honor.

Which caused the question of whether or not Thomas should switch jersey numbers to pop up. Now Van Lier's number isn't retired, so it's available to anyone who wants it, and given that Thomas has a history with the number, it's not surprising he chose it when traded here. Now, however, it would be a nice gesture by Thomas -- one that would endear him to the fans -- if he would change his number.

Granted, it's not that big of a deal if Thomas continues wearing the number, but neither changing it wouldn't be either. Hopefully Thomas comes to this conclusion as well.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.