A now denounced report from NBA reporter Marc Stein that said Kevin Durant was more likely to retire than play for the Brooklyn Nets again caught the ire of WFAN’s Sal Licata Tuesday morning.
While filling in for Boomer & Gio, Licata said he struggled to believe some NBA reporters after the rumor of Durant’s possible retirement came up.
“I think some of these are phony and made up,” Licata said. “Who would believe that crap? Who comes up with that crap? Who even reported it? I wanna know who reported that. It’s ridiculous! Was it Shams (Charania)? (Ric) Bucher? So what? Some BS reporter or website is reporting this stuff. ‘Oh, he may retire.’ Common sense could break half these stories. My common sense says Kevin Durant is obviously not going to retire. Now obviously, he tweets that he’s not going to retire. Of course you’re not retiring! Who would leave that money on the table and not play basketball? Gimme a break!”
“It came from Mark Stein,” Jerry Recco said.
“Alright. At least that’s a name I know,” update anchor Chris Lopresti said.
“What was the exact — was it his opinion? Was it he might –“, Licata said.
“I don’t know,” Recco interrupted. “I’m reading from SI.com right now because they’ve got the Durant portion of it. The denial. And it says ‘the rumor of Durant possibly retiring came from Substack’s Marc Stein. He reportedly heard from one well-connected executive who insisted that, based on what he was hearing, Durant was more apt to retire than play for the Brooklyn Nets again’.”
“That is BS!,” Licata shouted. “Who would take that and run with it?! To a point where it gets on a crawl? To the point where Durant’s gotta respond to that nonsense?! Then you wonder why players hate the media?! According to a source that you heard through an executive?! I mean, come on! It’s ridiculous!”
Durant has since tweeted he will not be retiring, and any report that insinuates he was considering it “is comical at this point“.
