Steve Kerr admits Warriors have been planning for Kevin Durant’s return for years
By Ian Levy
It’s been years since Kevin Durant left the Warriors but circumstance has kept them from implementing their plans for his return.
It’s been nearly four years since the last time Kevin Durant played a game in a Golden State Warriors uniform — Game 5 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Houston Rockets, May 8, 2019. Durant left that game after tearing his Achilles tendon and then left the Warriors two months later to join the Brooklyn Nets.
A lot has happened in those four years — he recovered from his injury and returned to form, battling other nagging injuries and entropy to help make the Nets look like a contender in brief flashes. He made two separate trade demands before finally being moved to the Phoenix Suns last month. The Warriors endured a pair of ugly, injury-riddled seasons before bouncing back to win another title last year.
In all that time, he’s played the Warriors just four times and only once as a visiting opponent. That game came in front of an empty arena during the COVID pandemic which means that since leaving the Warriors he’s never had a chance to play in front of their home crowd again.
This fluke came up again this week as a sprained ankle kept him out of the lineup when the Suns played the Warriors in San Francisco Monday night — a fact that Steve Kerr lamented while speaking with reporters.
Kerr said "it's nuts" that KD has yet to play in front of Warriors fans since his departure. "We've always anticipated his return and we've always had a planned welcome back video to thank him for everything he did for this franchise and literally every game something comes up."
— Madeline Kenney (@madkenney) March 14, 2023
When might Kevin Durant play in front of a Warriors home crowd again?
The Suns don’t have any more road games against the Warriors this season which means the earliest this could happen is during the playoffs. As luck would it have it, the Suns and Warriors are currently the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds in the Western Conference, setting them up for a first-round matchup. That would put a theoretically healthy Durant in front of Warriors fans in Game 3.
If, for some reason, the standings change and they don’t meet in the playoffs, Warriors fans will have to wait until next year to cheer and/or jeer Durant in their own building.
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