Caretaker Hawks coach Ben Hill, sponsor Cameron Taylor and franchise board chairman Keith Price will present him a singlet at the halftime break of the Hawks v James Blond Supercity Rangers at the Pettigrew-Green Arena in Napier after the sides tip off at 7pm in the gold-coin entry today.
Ironically Winitana chose No 8 because he grew up playing rugby.
"I wanted to be like my dad so from a young age when I was playing rugby I wanted to be No 8 because my dad was No 8 for Tamatea," says Winitana who wanted to follow in the footsteps of his maternal uncle, legendary All Black No 8 and captain Wayne "Buck" Shelford.
But when basketball eclipsed his rugby dreams Winitana took the No 8 with him.
"It's been awesome. All my sons love No 8 and my whole family love that number," says the former Tall Black whose family number eight - wife Tia, Paora jnr, 14, Niwhai, 11, Mana, 8, Mikaere, 5, and Te Aumiti, 2, and 85-day-old daughter, Waiaroha.
Fans often assumed he had chosen the number because former LA Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant started his career with it but Winitana hastened to add that was merely a coincidence.
"Kobe just happened to have that number when he came to the NBA and he is one of my favourite players but ... "
Winitana sported No 8 all the way up to the New Zealand Breakers, the Adelaide 36ers as well as any other franchises he played for.
However, the fans were always curious to know why he switched to No9 for the Tall Blacks.
"That was always because of Michael Jordan," he says of the former legendary Chicago Bulls shooting guard who had to sport No 9 for Team USA at the Olympics and World Cups because they weren't allowed to wear professional/college numbers and the numbering for the cup and games only went up to 15.
"When I first made the first New Zealand age-group team I chose No 9 straight away because I wanted to be like Michael Jordan."
Jordan, 53, wore Nos 23, 45 and 12 in his NBA career but there's a twist to why Winitana chose No 9.
"For me it was another league up from 36ers or Breakers because to play for your country was a jump from No 8," Winitana explains.
The NBA star's brother, Larry, a year older, wore No 45 so Jordan added 4 and 5 to make up No 9. Yet another theory is he chose No 23 because it was the closest he could get to halving 45.
The tug strings on Winitana's filial ties also took a beating.
"My father was gutted when I changed from rugby to basketball because he always wanted an All Black or something like that because he loves rugby.
"Hey, I love rugby, too, so that's why I kept the number," he says, adding his male-heavy family love rugby but play basketball.
Winitana says if he grants anyone permission to don the No 8 singlet in the Hawks squad he will have to match the pride and passion he brought to the team but not necessarily the skills.
"The commitment to team, the commitment to community - they'll have to incorporate all that," he says, suspecting it'll be quite hard to identify that in someone coming in as a youth.
However, he says if an athlete in the Paul Henare and Paora Winitana Hawke's Bay Academy replicates such values he will oblige.
Well, what about one of his five sons?
"They are in the same boat but my wife might have something different to say about that.
"If the boys all want it then my daughter will get it," he quipped.
On a serious note, Winitana says as honoured as he is with tonight's mark of respect he feels former Hawks captain/coach Henare should have his No 32 retired.
"He's done as much as anyone for our province," he says of the Napier-born Tall Blacks and Breakers coach who was in the crowd at the PG Arena last Saturday night in the win over the Nelson Giants and who he calls his "brother".
No 8 MATTERS
Here are some ticklers on what No 8 denotes to people universally:
■ Symbol of harmony and balance.
■ Denotes abundance and power.
■ In China it is homonym for prosperity. When pronounced in the vernacular it sounds like the word "prosper".
■ The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in 2008 began on 8-8-08 at 8 seconds and 8 minutes past 8 o'clock at night.
■ The eighth day of the Chinese New Year is the for the annual gathering of all the gods in heaven.
■ Biblical significance includes Jesus showing himself eight times after his resurrection.
■ God saved eight people on Noah's Ark to ensure a new beginning for humankind after the biblical flood.
■ It represents infinity and everything good in the universe which is infinite, such as love, energy and time.
