Jerry Stackhouse and the Brooklyn Connection to "42"

The movie "42" about Jackie Robinson's first season with the Dodgers ... and what it meant to sports, the nation and the world... premieres Thursday (oddly in Los Angeles, not Brooklyn). For one member of the Nets, the movie is more than just an interesting bio-pic about a place and time.

Jerry Stackhouse is the first professional athlete to wear the number in 55 years since Robinson retired just before the Dodgers move out west. He understands the significance of the film and his wearing the number.

"When you have a movie just with that number, you don't even say Jackie Robinson, just the number, that lets everybody know - whether it's me wearing No. 42 or whoever's wearing the number - that the real number belongs to Jackie Robinson," Stackhouse told the Daily News. "All you have to say is 42 and everybody knows who you're talking about."

Stack also reveals that he chose the number years ago not because of reverence for Robinson but because his favorite player growing up with James Worthy, who did indeed wear the number because of the connection to the player who integrated baseball in 1947.

"I guess in a round about way, then Jackie Robinson really was the reason I wore the number since Worthy was my guy," Stackhouse said. The highly anticipated film also has another Nets link. Jay-Z did the soundtrack.

• Nets' Jerry Stackhouse understands the significance of wearing No. 42 in Brooklyn - Bernie Augustine - New York Daily News