{"id":444802,"date":"2026-09-23T04:56:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:56:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444802\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T04:56:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T04:56:10","slug":"kevin-durant-addresses-potential-nba-retirement-with-houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444802\/","title":{"rendered":"Kevin Durant Addresses Potential NBA Retirement With Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9q\">At 37 years old, Kevin Durant is still one of the top players in the NBA. He earned All-NBA Second Team honors last season, averaging 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, and 4.8 assists over 78 games.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"9v\">Holding a player option for the 2027-2028 season, Durant has the choice to enter next summer as an unrestricted free agent. Playing alongside All-Star-caliber teammates in Alperen Sengun and Amen Thompson, he could decide to remain with the Houston Rockets.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a0\">During Rockets <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=yMOC4xAFPEs\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">media day<\/a>, Durant answered whether he has thought about finishing his NBA career in Houston.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"a5\">\u201cI\u2019m not thinking about anything like that. I enjoy coming into work every day. It\u2019s been fun going through the process with everybody. I\u2019m taking it a day at a time. That\u2019s the most I can do. Who knows what will happen down the line or in the future? Right now, I enjoy showing up for work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/01m365j6qh2b9yfr4b8t.jpg\" alt=\"Kevin Durant\" title=\"Kevin Durant\" width=\"360\" height=\"203\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"ah\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Sep 22, 2026; Houston, TX, USA;  Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant poses for a picture during media day at Hilton Americas hotel. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n<p>Western Conference Contenders<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"as\">While Durant is one of the oldest active players in the league, his elite scoring suggests that retirement <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/rockets\/onsi\/kevin-durant-pushes-back-on-potential-rockets-plan-01m3598wcpv2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">may not be too close<\/a> on the horizon. He finished fourth in total points scored in the NBA last season, behind only Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jaylen Brown.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"ax\">Based on the consistency he has maintained throughout of his career, Durant could mirror 22-time All-Star LeBron James in longevity. In his 23rd season, James averaged 20.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 7.2 assists over 60 games. The 41-year-old was a top-10 finisher in MVP voting for 2025.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b2\">One of the biggest criticisms of Durant is his lack of championship success from this decade. The 16-time All-Star has not made a conference finals appearance since 2019, when he was a member of the dynastic Golden State Warriors.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"b7\">Durant\u2019s first year in Houston resulted in a first-round exit against the Los Angeles Lakers, though the veteran was sidelined for the majority of the series. Despite this shortcoming, there are high expectations for the Rockets to elevate their profile as Western Conference title contenders.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bc\">With Sengun and Thompson both having yet to reach 25 years old, arguably having not reached their prime years, and contracted until at least 2030, the Rockets may be an ideal long-term playing situation for Durant to remain in the title hunt too. Their recent 52-30 record is a solid proof of concept.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"bh\">Overall, Durant\u2019s future with the Rockets will likely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/rockets\/onsi\/kevin-durant-s-long-term-view-of-houston-becomes-clearer-01m35d6ys4am\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">become clearer<\/a> in the coming months. Based on his recent production, retirement should not be expected in the plans for 2027.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" preventdefault:click=\"\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\" on:click=\"q-RL_f6kFR.js#s_lDqay9E5m5g[0]\" q:id=\"bn\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 37 years old, Kevin Durant is still one of the top players in the NBA. He earned&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-444802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}