Kevin Durant thinks the Golden State Warriors should retire his jersey.
Really.
Golden State won two titles with Durant, but the Warriors won an NBA championship before he got there and another one after he left. He was an outstanding player there for three seasons – just three seasons — but that core of players could and did win without him. He signed with the Warriors because it was the easiest path to winning a title.
FanDuel Sportsbook BET $5, WIN $150 BONUS BETS & 3 MONTHS NBA LEAGUE PASS
21+ and present in participating states. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler.
If the Warriors retired Durant’s 35, it would cheapen the eventual honor for Steph Curry, who should not only have his number retired, but a statue outside the arena and the Bay Bridge renamed for him.
Nobody should begrudge Durant’s right to move around. His stature as a great player and the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement made all of that possible. He’s a lock for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame. But choosing a nomadic career means he’s never going to have the kind of bond with a city and fanbase that other great players enjoy. Retired numbers don’t, or at least shouldn’t, go to mercenaries.
Durant doesn’t get that.
“Look at the résumé,” Durant said. “That would warrant me to get a jersey retirement, right? Do I want to be honored by a franchise I put work in for? Of course, I would love that. I had some great moments there. I built some solid relationships there. Yeah, man. Hell yeah, that would be sweet. I love that organization, man. I love my time there, seriously. Me leaving, people shouldn’t doubt that, because I left there.”
Why shouldn’t people doubt that? Durant wanted to play in New York instead of the Bay Area. He chose Kyrie Irving over Steph Curry. He wanted to go somewhere else to knock the Warriors from their elite perch in the sport. Why wouldn’t that bother their fans?
This is the career path he chose and no franchise — and certainly not one as storied and venerable as the Warriors — should change their standards just because a guy who is used to getting what he wants has set his sights on this. The honors he gets and deserves from his time in Oakland are two rings and two trophies. Retired numbers require more investment.
Investment has always been Durant’s problem. The moment a situation isn’t exactly as he envisioned, he gets pouty and his eyes start wandering toward greener lawns. He wants what he wants and is used to people catering to it. But he’s never been a franchise cornerstone on a championship team and at this point never will.
Durant could have been forever beloved in Oklahoma City but he bailed out of there. If the Nets had become an elite team he’d have been a franchise icon. But he and Kyrie Irving were as beneficial to the Nets as Elon Musk has been to Twitter. They arrived with a lot of fanfare. They complained a lot. and their self-centered bad decisions made it worse. When the Nets couldn’t solve the problems Durant and Irving helped cultivate, both journeyman stars complained their way out of town, burning another bridge with a fanbase that wanted to love them.
Players whose numbers are retired should have beloved successful longevity. … Or be a franchise changer. … Or an icon in the community in that city in addition to being a great player. Or a well-liked teammate.
Ideally, they’d be more than one of those. Does Durant check any of the boxes?
Here’s an even simpler tool to decide: If they had to move replica jerseys with a player’s number to the discount rack in the team store because they bailed on the franchise, that player’s number shouldn’t ever be retired.
- Highly anticipated sportsbooks like BetMGM Massachusetts, along with Caesars Sportsbook Massachusetts have been live since Spring of 2023. New players can use promo codes like the FanDuel Massachusetts promo code and the DraftKings Massachusetts promo.
People love his talent and put up with the rest of his often grumpy package because he’s really good at scoring points. He spent three years in Golden State. Three years, that’s long by Durant’s short attention span standards, but it hardly makes him an institution. Taylor Swift has had a relationship longer than that. And Joe Alwyn doesn’t think she should retire his number despite his contribution to several of her championship-caliber albums.
Durant joined a team that was elite. Golden State was elite while he was there and stayed elite after he left. And he chose to leave — he likes to ignore that choosing to leave matters — and he did so at least partially because he wanted more credit for a team’s success.
The Warriors aren’t the Timberwolves or the Grizzlies who might retire a number just to have something to look at in the bannerless rafters. This is the franchise of Wilt Chamberlain, of Chris Mullin of Rick Barry.
Kevin Durant? He was just a great player passing through.
Follow MassLive sports columnist Matt Vautour on Twitter at @MattVautour424.
