Kevin Durant Really Does Not Want The Nets To Give Him A Tribute Video

Tribute videos were once a gesture typically reserved for players that had a lengthy tenure with a team, but now just about any player that has more than a cup of coffee in a city is greeted with a cutup of highlights in their first game back after joining a new team via trade or free agency.

Sometimes they are absolutely warranted, but we’ve jumped the shark a bit when it comes to who gets honored on the Jumbotron, as teams feel almost compelled to denote any former player’s return. What makes it even stranger is that the players themselves aren’t always the ones who want that treatment.

As the Phoenix Suns get ready to make their first trip to Brooklyn to face the Nets since trading for Kevin Durant, the future Hall of Famer wants to make it very clear that he does not think he should get a tribute video from the franchise he spent four years with. As Nets fans debated on Twitter whether he should get one, KD hopped in the replies to plead his case to the Nets to pass on the video tribute, noting it will make the night better without it.

Durant knows the video is likely to draw a mixed reaction at best, with some cheers but plenty of boos considering how the Nets Big 3 era crumbled before it ever even got started. The Nets never made it beyond the second round of the playoffs while Durant was there, despite coming KD’s big toe away from the conference finals in 2021, and he knows that he didn’t deliver on the hopes of what could’ve been. Injuries, locker room turmoil, and trade requests were more frequent in Brooklyn than playoff wins, and KD is at least self-aware enough to know that group didn’t live up to the billing and, as such, there shouldn’t be an attempt at a touching video remembrance of his time there.