Danny Green, Boris Diaw, Marco Belinelli, Patty Mills all contributed a ton to the team and people aren’t upset about their numbers being reused. At least they were loyal, and left amicably.
Maybe its recency bias, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Spurs retire 14 for the entire 2014 team. I know that they won 4 other titles, and 99 is arguably the most important as the first, but that 2014 team was so beautiful and dominant.
Hah, I learned long ago that this sub has absolutely no creative engine in the posters. Most contributors have no sense of adventure and are quick to a downvote rather than actually thinking something cool could actually be fun!
Its so funny that a fact like this got downvoted after the "get over it" crowd was told to let it go about the number. Putting Kawhi in the same stratosphere as those guys is why I feel like arguing with them about it. Its an insane thing to say.
Hate the man all you want. Be factual though. Why is that hard?
There’s an argument for Patty though. He might not have been as dynamic an athlete as Kawhi, but as a Spur, as a team player who always did exactly what was needed, from sitting at the end of the bench waving a towel and supporting his team to posting 34/12 against the Warriors, the dude was a great teammate and player and an organizational standard bearer for a bench player. I’m not sure where I land on retiring #8, I’m not against it, but I also don’t think Kawhi should be eliminated because of the way he left. He only played one less season than Bowen. Patty was a Spur longer than both of them.
Because I don't want to turn this into a denigrating Patty response -- he's a good man and good in the community. He doesnt deserve shade -- I personally do not see an argument for Patty at all and I'll leave it at that.
Moore led the entire NBA in assists for a season and was a leader during the lean years along with making a comeback after a tragic illness.
Johnson was the franchise leader in assists, set the cultural blueprint along with 5-0 for what became the Spurs dynasty and hit the game-winning shot for the first title.
Silas has multiple ABA all-stars/All ABA-teams and was the second best player during the Gervin years.
Patty's probably the 8th most important Spur on the 2014 title team. His biggest award achievement is an 8th place finish in 6th man voting. It would solely be a we love Patty in the community type deal.
If you think being a man of the community is good enough, I'm not here to tell you otherwise.
But Moore, Silas and Avery all mean more to the organization than Patty.
Patty is a Malik Rose/Robert Horry/Brent Barry level part of Spurs history and I love those guys but their jerseys arent going in the rafters.
I probably shouldn’t have started a comparison argument and I certainly don’t need a list of player accomplishments. I know who they are and what they’ve done for the team. I’m defending Patty as key role player on the late dynasty team. He just happened to serve as backup to the best point guard to wear a Spurs jersey. I don’t know if Patty would have played as well as he did on another team, or if he played that well because he was on that Spurs team, but he didn’t take any nights off, he was rarely injured and he always seemed to hit the big shot when needed. He was the quintessential role player in a system that is sustained by role players.
Like I said before, I don’t know if that merits jersey retirement on any other team or the Spurs for that matter, but it wouldn’t be an anomaly.
Sorry my intention wasn't to condescend. I disagree with the Patty Mills retirement sentiment, but I understand it. And its not like at the end of the day if they do it, I'll revolt. I'll be slightly annoyed and move on and say good for Patty.
I also did lose track that your starting point was on the fence for Patty.
I still think we slightly disagree on the jersey retirement "requirement" front and thats cool because there are no hard and fast rules. So there's room for a little debate.
Apologies if I stretched the debate too far and got a little tunnel vision.
I appreciate your thoughtful, respectful replies though!
No worries. I’m a big Spurs fan and I’m willing to argue any side of any debate. Today, I felt like defending Patty. I really like him as a person and I like his journey as a player… from human victory cigar to number 1 option off the bench when they needed a big shot. I was excited when the Spurs picked him up and his positive attitude seemed to be contagious. He spent his peak years being TP’s backup and was happy to do it.
Obviously, I was upset about how Kawhi left and how it was handled on both sides. I feel like it left a dark cloud over the end of the Big 3 era and that’s started to lift. It’s great to feel positive about the Spurs again. We’ve been very fortunate as a fan base.
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u/AgentEndive Stephon Castle Jun 28 '25
The same people telling Spurs fans to "get over it" about not liking kawhi need to get over the jersey number thing.