SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The day after the Phoenix Suns pulled off a blockbuster trade for Kevin Durant, Stewart Cink played to the crowd at the 2023 WM Phoenix Open.
Cink, who went to Georgia Tech, lives in Atlanta and is a self-described die-hard Hawks fan, managed to get his hands on a No. 35 Suns jersey with DURANT across the back and wore it while playing the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale.
So how did he manage to get his hands on that, just hours after the trade went down?
“I didn’t know anything about the trade until I woke up. And I’m a Hawks fan, die-hard. So I’ve been paid attention to trade deadline, every couple hours, first thing I do is check to see what the Hawks have done,” he said. “And I read that [Durant trade] and then it just kind of occurs to me that it’s a pretty good opportunity.
“Here we are, the first day the Waste Management Phoenix Open, and Kevin Durant just got traded to the Suns. I wonder if I could get my hands on Kevin Durant?
35 on No. 16.@StewartCink is already rocking a @KDTrey5 jersey 🏀☀️ pic.twitter.com/FQLxm4tuo8
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) February 9, 2023
“So I called around a couple places, the usual places that you would think of and all of them send off their embroidery couldn’t do it. And then I called another place and it happened to be, the lady just said, ‘I’m sorry, sir. But I’m not really a store, I’m the embroidery company that actually makes the team jerseys for the team. I don’t sell to the public. I only work with the team.’
“So I’m like, ‘Well, this is perfect.’ And I explained to her what I was wanting to do. … and she said ‘I’m sorry, but it’s a great idea. But we can’t do it because we have like regulations. There’s a lot of restrictions what we’re allowed to do with jerseys to keep our relationship with team we just can’t do anything. We can’t give or sell any jerseys.’
“And I thought was dead in the water. And 45 minutes later, she called me back and said that she spoke to the equipment manager and the manager for the Suns who set it up the flagpole. … she got it ready in about 30 minutes.
“And when I walked in, she had two jerseys ready for me to go. We threw one on, it was too big. Threw the next one on it was perfect. I signed the one that was too big, they kept it and then drove straight here.
“It was it was awesome. It was great. I was glad to do it. I love the NBA.”
Cink isn’t the first to don a jersey on the famous par-3 hole. Max Homa and Tony Finau both wore a Kobe Bryant jersey in 2020. Homa wore the No. 24 version, while Finau had the No. 8.
Jon Rahm and Billy Mayfair, both Arizona State grads, wore the No. 42 ASU jersey of Pat Tillman.
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