Nets erasing 1 notable remnant of Kevin Durant era

Feb 16, 2023; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Phoenix Suns forward Kevin Durant looks on against the LA Clippers during the first half at Footprint Center. Mandatory Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

The Brooklyn Nets are certainly not ones for nostalgia.

The Nets selected ex-Duke forward Dariq Whitehead with their first-round pick (No. 22 overall) in this year’s draft. During Brooklyn’s introduction of Whitehead (along with their other draft-day acquisitions, Jalen Wilson and Noah Clowney) on Friday, something interesting was revealed. The Nets are giving Whitehead the No. 7 jersey, which used to belong to Kevin Durant.

Welcome your newest Brooklyn Nets pic.twitter.com/7b4KQtvftA

— Kristian Winfield (@Krisplashed) June 23, 2023

The former MVP Durant was traded to the Phoenix Suns in February after four years in Brooklyn. Now Durant’s old jersey number with the Nets is gone a mere four months later.

Of course, Brooklyn was never going to retire Durant’s jersey after he won just one playoff series for them and brought an avalanche of dysfunction to town before eventually forcing his way out with a trade request. But that is still a pretty quick turnaround for the Nets to put Durant’s old number back in circulation (and for a player in Whitehead who didn’t even wear the No. 7 when he was in college).

Durant made headlines not too long ago when he essentially demanded that one of his old teams retire his jersey. He clearly will get no such honor from the Nets however (even if they should probably thank Durant for getting them Mikal Bridges and other very valuable assets in exchange for him).