{"id":337258,"date":"2026-07-11T22:25:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/337258\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T22:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T22:25:12","slug":"bobby-portis-jr-reveals-the-surprising-reason-behind-his-new-miami-heat-jersey-number","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/337258\/","title":{"rendered":"Bobby Portis Jr reveals the surprising reason behind his new Miami Heat jersey number"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It’s always interesting to hear how athletes<\/a> come up with their jersey numbers. Sometimes there’s a deep story, or it’s a tribute to another player.<\/p>\n

Other times, as is the case with Bobby Portis Jr.’s new number with the Miami Heat<\/a>, it comes by way of a sign.<\/p>\n

A literal one. On a highway.<\/p>\n

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\"Bobby <\/p>\n

Bobby Portis Jr. revealed an unexpected reason for his new jersey number with the Miami Heat. (Photo by John Fisher\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Portis was dealt by the Milwaukee Bucks<\/a> to the Miami Heat along with Bucks teammate Giannis Antetokounmpo in exchange for Nate Ament, Tyler Herro, Kasparas Jakucionis, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, and a number of draft picks.<\/p>\n

That means a fresh start is in order for the former Bull, Wizard and Knick.<\/p>\n

Part of that means moving on from the No. 9 he used in Milwaukee and adopting the somewhat unusual No. 95 he’ll use in Miami.<\/p>\n

Portis explained what inspired his new digits.<\/p>\n

“When I was driving my stuff down to Miami<\/a>, I didn\u2019t want to wear No. 9 because that\u2019s a Milwaukee thing for me,” he explained. “So, I wanted to change it up a little bit. I was looking up at the sign and it said \u201895 South.\u2019 And if you don\u2019t know, you can take 95 all the way to Miami. So 95 is where I\u2019m at now.”<\/p>\n

Wow. This has to be the first time anyone has ever been inspired by I-95. If it inspires anything, it’s usually dread.<\/p>\n

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\"I-95 <\/p>\n

Most of us just see a sign for a giant highway, but Bobby Portis Jr. sees his next jersey number. ((Photo by Stephen Morton\/Getty Images))<\/p>\n

Normally, when I see those signs, my first thought is more like, “Crap, I guess this is just going to be the fastest, most direct way to get from A to B, isn’t it?”<\/p>\n

Hey, whatever works.<\/p>\n

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Of course, Portis noted that there’s a little bonus with the number, as he was born in 1995 as well.<\/p>\n

But I love that this was secondary to the fact that he saw a sign for I-95 and was like, “Eureka!”<\/p>\n

Matthew Reigle is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s always interesting to hear how athletes come up with their jersey numbers. Sometimes there’s a deep story,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337259,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[123,125,2490,124,5845,2295,105742],"class_list":["post-337258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-heat","tag-miami-news","tag-milwaukee-bucks","tag-nba","tag-outkick-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337258\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}