University of Texas Starts Retiring Numbers

[HPF Bob]

UT has not been a school to officially retire numbers much but they just, out of the blue, announced about a dozen, ranging from Vince Young (#10) and Tommy Nobis (#60) in foootball to baseball and basketball stars over the years.

I'll let someone else debate who got snubbed but I'll tell you one number being retired who I don't think deserves it: #35 Kevin Durant. Let's start with the fact that he only played at UT for one year. Secondly, Texas did not win any titles while he was here. They didn't win the conference, didn't win the conference tournament, didn't make the Final Four. Kevin Durant was certainly a great player who won a lot of awards - but they were all awards for Kevin Durant, not for the team he played for.

So, a guy shows up for one year, wins a bunch of personal awards, never leads the team to any significant accomplishments before turning pro and he gets his number retired??? Pretty much a gut-punch to anyone else who actually worked to bring a national championship here or at least sweated out four long years in Austin.

While I was ranting about this at my cubicle, one of the managers came by (also a UT fan) who says it is all about recruiting. It is all about hanging Durant's number from the rafters and saying "See? If you come here, you too might be a national Player of the Year and #2 overall draft choice." Yeah, I suppose he's right. So much of what sports programs do nowadays is to win the Recruiting War. But, still, this rankles me.

[Joe Joe]

Have you seen UT basketball before? He's certainly helped them more than any other player with maybe the exception of Ford in the last 20 years.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by Joe Joe

Have you seen UT basketball before? He's certainly helped them more than any other player with maybe the exception of Ford in the last 20 years.

I completely understand Bob's point, but your right on the money. Texas had been a pretty damn good basketball program before Durant, but Durant brought the media attention....and thus gave them a recruiting edge, and for the first time got some alum money flowing from somewhere else besides the football field.

[KJ3]

hey, it's u of texas' decision...if they want to cheapen up their own honor system then i'm cool with it. i hope they get what they wanted out of it though because they really, really lessened the meaning of a jersey retirement.

[Keith]

Originally Posted by KJ3

they really, really lessened the meaning of a jersey retirement.

The Dallas Mavericks already cornered the market on that when they raised #15 Brad Davis up to the Reunion Arena rafters.

[KJ3]

haha...jeez...WHO?!?