Kevin Durant has returned to Seattle, where his Golden State Warriors will play host to the Sacramento Kings in a preseason game on Friday night, airing at 10:30pm ET on ESPN. Tonight's matchup is currently the last public event scheduled in KeyArena before a planned two-year, $700 million renovation project to build a new Seattle Center Arena under the existing roof structure.
Like many hoops fans, Durant is hoping that an NBA team will be back in Seattle before long.
"For sure," Durant told ESPN. "Most definitely. It's a basketball city. It's a sports town. ... They have a good representation of basketball in the NBA from Seattle-born players, Washington state-born players. And I feel like that whole brand deserves an NBA team. Just like the Golden State Warriors deserve a team or the Los Angeles Lakers deserve a team, Seattle is that same way. [A team] has that same type of impact in the community. So [we have] a lot of time in life before this whole thing is over, and I'm sure we'll see a team before it's time."
Ahead of tonight's game, Durant has debuted a green SuperSonics colorway of his signature sneaker, the Nike KD11, in honor of the franchise that drafted him second overall out of Texas in the 2007 NBA Draft. Nike also created an alternate SuperSonics yellow version of the KD11 which we might see on KD's feet in tonight's preseason game.
Check out the SuperSonics KD11 PEs in the tweets embedded below, and see which one Durant rocks against the Kings tonight on ESPN.