Kevin Durant did not assume he deserved a tribute video. The Brooklyn Nets gave him one anyway.
For Durant’s first sport again at Barclays Middle as an opposing participant, the Nets performed a video tribute to his three-plus seasons with the franchise. After signing with Brooklyn in 2019, Durant ended up enjoying simply 129 video games with the crew. The 2021 crew got here near beating the eventual champion Milwaukee Bucks within the second spherical earlier than the partnership of Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden imploded. Ultimately, all three pressured trades.
After a ballot on X steered the vast majority of Nets followers thought Durant did not deserve a video, KD agreed, saying “The evening can be higher with out it.”
When a fan complained that Durant had extra commerce requests than collection wins in Brooklyn, he additionally agreed.
Tribute movies had been as soon as reserved for beloved stars returning to their outdated groups. Now, they’re used for any participant coming again to an outdated crew, regardless of how little historical past they’d. This was exemplified on an evening in April 2021 when the Denver Nuggets played a video for Gary Harris, who had spent the primary six-and-a-half years of his profession in Denver, and for R.J. Hampton, a rookie who had performed 25 video games for the crew.
By that normal, a Durant video was a no brainer, even when he wasn’t excited about one. It is a approach for groups to say, “No laborious emotions” and ship a message to free brokers that they care for gamers. As well as, NBA groups have not too long ago centered extra on video content material and in-arena leisure. Any tribute video fills Jumbotron time, makes use of a few of their large archive of footage and permits the followers to cheer. Even when the participant requested to be traded away.
That was the case in Portland, the place Damian Lillard, who requested a commerce final summer time, obtained a protracted tribute video from the Path Blazers – plus a second video highlighting his off-the-court work.
Although Durant appeared stoic after the video performed, he was gracious about it after his Phoenix Suns beat Brooklyn, 136-120.
In his postgame interview, Durant mentioned that “After all” he watched the video, and added, “I had some nice moments right here.”
Nonetheless, we’ve got a sense that the crew will skip the tribute video when Kyrie Irving and the Dallas Mavericks go to on Sunday. In any case, what could possibly be a extra applicable tribute to Irving’s time in Brooklyn than to have his tribute video not present up?