Kevin Durant is getting a response from one of the guys he wants to sit next to in the rafters some day.
The Brooklyn Nets star forward Durant said this week that the Golden State Warriors need to retire his No. 35 jersey and that “it wouldn’t even be good for the game of basketball if they didn’t.” Retired Warriors great Chris Mullin reacted over the weekend to Durant’s comments.
“100 percent,” said Mullin when asked on NBC Sports if the Warriors should retire Durant’s number. “There’s different levels of accomplishment. Kevin Durant’s tenure here with the Golden State Warriors were three NBA Finals, two Finals MVPs, and … he went out there and sacrificed his body to try and get that third championship in a row. He’s as unique a player as we’ve seen in the history of the game of basketball.”
Mullin, whose own No. 17 jersey was retired by the Warriors in 2012, makes a good point in that Durant’s resume speaks for itself. Though he only spent four years with them, Durant helped deliver two of the four championships in Golden State Warriors history. Additionally, every single Finals MVP in NBA history (with the lone exception of Dennis Johnson, whose No. 24 was never retired by the Seattle SuperSonics) has gotten their jersey retired by the team that they won it with (obviously excluding active players).
Durant sparked a bit more controversy by saying in the same interview that another one of his former teams should retire his jersey as well. But when it comes to the Warriors, that is about as open-and-shut of a case as it gets.
Photo: Oct 11, 2021; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; Brooklyn Nets forward Kevin Durant (7) in action against the Philadelphia 76ers during the first quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
