Hawks rookie DeAndre’ Bembry has chosen a uniform number with great personal significance.
The first-round draft pick announced on social media Friday that he will wear the No. 95 to honor his late brother, who died just before the NBA Draft last month.
In a post on Twitter, Bembry wrote: “I will be wearing the jersey number 95 for the year my little brother was born #newbeginnings”
Adrian Potts was killed near the campus of North Carolina-Charlotte. According to his mother, Essence, the 20-year-old Potts was trying to break up a fight when he was shot.
“It’s been a rough two weeks for us but we are getting through it as a family,” the 22-year-old Bembry said during a news conference after he was selected with the No. 21 overall pick. “… We were best friends since Day 1. When my mother was at work, we were either at my grandmother’s house or my cousin’s house. We were always together.
“Definitely, he was a best friend to me. For maybe like three or four years of high school, we were talking about being in this situation. It’s pretty hard being here without him here. It’s rough. Definitely going to miss him.”
Bembry has gotten emotional several times in discussing the joys and sorrows of his brother’s death just before the draft.
On Thursday, Bembry posted the following on Twitter: “I just can’t get passed my lil brother at all. It’s like my dream came true and a nightmare same time. That was my best-friend I raised him”
Bembry wore No. 43 with the Hawks at the Las Vegas Summer League. That number will be worn by veteran Kris Humphries, who re-signed with the team this month.
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