Well my stepdad was wrong
who knows maybe it was just his high school number. But when he came into the NBA who could've had his number. Maybe it was Al Green but I think he was 31 or something.....I'll look it up.
EDIT: Here it is from Yahoo!
Kobe changed his jersey to start the second half of his career sort of like a fresh start. All the drama of Shaq, the Colorado case, etc will end with the number 8. He chose the number 24 to show his hard work ethic which is 24 hours a day. Saying that he works 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Kobe and Odom is 24/7. It also helps if changing your number will also increase your jersey sales