Before the backlash filled his inbox with hateful messages and cupcake photos, Kevin Durant became surprised with what he had just seen on his phone.
Durant had just announced his free-agency decision in a Players Tribune article that he would leave the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Golden State Warriors in the 2016 offseason. Before he had time to absorb the eventual backlash, Durant was struck by who first reached out to him. Nearly three months after retiring from a storied 20-year NBA career, former Lakers guard Kobe Bryant contacted Durant to offer a message worth more than just his two cents.
" 'It's to quiet the noise,' " Bryant recalled telling Durant in an interview with Bay Area News Group. " 'At the end of day, what people say is inconsequential.' "
Durant found Bryant's words important. After all, Bryant's credentials are obvious: five NBA championships and a third-place standing on the league's all-time scoring list. His No. 8 and No. 24 jerseys were retired at halftime when the Warriors (23-6) played the Los Angeles Lakers (10-17) on Monday at Staples Center.
"Having Kobe there to support me through that situation, it felt like him telling me, 'All right, your skills are good enough to be among some of the best,' " Durant told the Bay Area News Group. " 'You just have to keep working to stay there.' "
Bryant's work ethic partly explains why he will represent one of several Lakers luminaries to have their jerseys retired, including Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, Shaquille O'Neal, Gail Goodrich, Elgin Baylor and Jamaal Wilkes. And it only seems fitting this will take place against the Warriors.
Bryant's moment might temporarily move the Warriors off center stage after winning two NBA championships in the past three years. Their presence, though, provides a visible reminder of Bryant's varying sources of influence on the Warriors' stars players, including Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.
"I've always had a great amount of respect for all those players," Bryant said.
And with that respect, Bryant has offered them plenty of advice and lessons derived from his own career path. With Warriors coach Steve Kerr planning to have his players watch Bryant's jersey retirement ceremony from the court, the former Lakers star even viewed that moment as another learning opportunity.
"If there's something for them to pull out of it, it's how quickly careers go by. So it makes it extremely important to seize the moment when you have it and capitalize on the opportunities when they are right there in front of you and not waste a single day," Bryant said. "You're blinking, and all of a sudden, you're going to be back there at a new arena in San Francisco retiring Steph's jersey and all the others. So hopefully they see it as that."
