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Kevin Durant Lays Down Expectations on Warriors Jersey Retirement Ahead of Reunion After 4 Years

Published 10/24/2023, 12:26 AM EDT

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For every Golden State Warriors fan, Kevin Durant’s 3-year stint with the Dub Nation is special. Describing the Warriors’ offense with KD as poetry in motion is an understatement. Meanwhile, the rest of the NBA world was not ready for it. In fact, it grew into resentment among many teams and the media that spilled over publicly.

After 4 years, and 5 different Champions, Kevin Durant is returning to the Bay Area. There is a palpable curiosity in the NBA to see how the two-time champion is going to be welcomed.

Jersey No.35

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Though Joe Lacob could not hold on to KD from going to Brooklyn, he declared that no other player would get to wear No.35. If there is a jersey retirement for Kevin Durant during the season opener, when the Warriors go against the Phoenix Suns, it would not come as a surprise at all. In fact, that would be the right thing to do for KD’s ultimate sacrifice as a Warrior.

KD was in the groundbreaking ceremony to begin the construction of the Chase center. But he was not part of the Dub Nation when that new arena was inaugurated. Before his second coming to the Bay Area, Kevin Durant sat with Marc J. Spears for an interview. And KD got nostalgic, as he reminisced, “I did have the dirt, have a shovel and some hardware to help build what went on in there now,” “Now, I might not have seen it through and played in there as a Warrior. But I helped put some dirt down. So, that’s how I look at it.”And we all got blood, sweat, tears in that arena, guys that won championships on that team. So, I tend to think of it the good times I had there.”

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What if there was no Draymond Green outburst?

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There are many times when the Dub Nation rejoiced at Draymond‘s firestarter antics. But those moments were against other teams. To some extent, it had helped the Warriors win some crucial games too. In the same vein, we can also think about the times when the Dubs paid the price for his outbursts. Be it his tiff with LeBron in the 2016 finals, or his in-game spat with Kevin Durant, there were many repercussions. On the heels of it, we also have his punch incident with Jordan Poole, which led to Jordan’s ousting. Despite all these incidents, Draymond is one of the most cherished Warriors ever.

Read More: Lebron James Drops 3-Word Praise for Christian McCaffrey After 49ERS Star Breaks Commanders Legend’s Record

Kevin Durant will always be special for the Dubs too. And for him to say that “it will be hard for him to compare with that era” reveals the eternal love that he has for the Dub Nation. Thus, it leaves us with the biggest “what if” question of all time. What if he had never left the Golden State Warriors at all?

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Written by:

Vinod Pillai

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Vinod is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. Having over six years of experience as a creative writer, he combines his passion for basketball with his love for journalism. Being an ardent fan of the NBA, he has been following & learning from reputed insiders & reporters such as Adrian Wojnarowski, Tim Legler, JJ Redick, Stephen A.
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Edited by:

Sameen Nawathe