Retiring Too Young

Number retiring ceremonies are always a special: they represent a salute to years of hard work and success for a team. They celebrate the commitment that an individual to a team and reward it with a commitment from the team – no one else will wear that number again. Forever will that number be associated with that player like the Chicago Bull’s #23 belonging to Michael Jordan or the New York Yankee’s #3 belonging to the Babe.

However, sometimes teams go overboard when retiring numbers. Recently, Texas University retired the number of Kevin Durant, a one-and-done collegiate mercenary who happened to spend a year at Texas before jumping to the NBA. While not blaming Durant for his decision – seriously, who wouldn’t turn down almost $4.5 million per year salary and a $60 million endorsement deal with Nike – you have to wonder whether one season, no matter how incredible, justifies retiring a number.

As incredible as Durant’s single season was, it was only one season. However, it was just that – one season. Retiring his number for one year is too much. I guess that’s one advantage to going to a school without a rich basketball tradition. Texas has only three Final Fours in its history, and only one since 1947.

The part that’s sadder than Texas’ lack of a national championship is one defense for the retirement of Durant’s number: he’s a good guy who the University wants to be forever linked with it. To the best of my knowledge – thanks A-Rod and others for having me insert that – Durant is a good, clean, upstanding ambassador for anyone he chooses to represent. But for a University to have to sink to idolizing a person who, let’s face it, came just to serve a year in college ball only because he couldn’t enter the draft and really didn’t have any academic ambitions shows the fracture turned chasm between academics and athletics for so-called student-athletes.

Texas has only retired three men’s basketball numbers, but the tradition it’s building is already on shaky footing. Only one athlete played more than one season, and that was Slater Martin back in the 1940s. What if all colleges required that in order to have a number retired, the athlete had to graduate? No, not in four years, not even in consecutive years. If it means ten, twenty, even thirty years from now Durant goes back to Texas to finish his degree, he’s certainly eligible! If Shaquille O’Neil can go back to LSU and get his degree eight years after his college career ended, anyone can! As the the Big Aristotle (or Big Cactus or Big Jabbawockee or whatever he calls himself now) said, he feels like he “can get a real job” as a result of his degree.

However, as crazy as Texas retiring Durant’s number is, the Miami Heat have them beat. The Heat have two retired numbers – take a guess as to which two.

Need a hint? Neither honor an athlete who played for the Heat.

Still stuck? One was already mentioned in this article.

Give up? On April 11, 2008, the Miami Heat retired the # 23 in honor of Michael Jordan. The Heat have also retired Dan Marino’s #13.