Kevin Durant has been in the NBA long enough to know which battles matter and which ones do not. Basketball still sits at the center of his world. Everything else, he has learned, can be optional.
That mindset surfaced during a recent appearance on Fred VanVleet‘s Unguarded podcast, when what started as light locker room banter drifted into something more revealing.
The topic was not trades, legacy, or championships. It was haircuts. Lotion. Showering. And why Durant simply does not care much about any of it.
VanVleet asked the question people joke about but rarely ask directly: why Durant never brushes his hair.
“For what? Why get cuts? Why? Why? Why lotion my… Why lotion? I don’t lotion my body like that. I might lotion my hands if they a little dry, but I don’t,” he said.
There was no defensiveness in the answer. No edge. Just indifference. Durant sounded less like someone rebelling against expectations and more like someone who had quietly decided those expectations were irrelevant.
VanVleet pointed out that Durant does, occasionally, show up with a clean lineup. Durant admitted that even those moments are rarely intentional.
“What [makes] me get a cut, for real, is when I’m in my room playing the game and my homies like, ‘Yeah, we got the barber on the way,'” Durant said. “Like, ‘All right, f**k it. If y’all getting a cut, I go get one, too…’ I ain’t calling them myself.”
That answer mattered more than it seemed. Durant was not saying he refuses to get haircuts. He was saying he stopped scheduling his life around them.
When Durant stopped worrying and felt the difference
Durant explained that earlier in his career, he did think about that stuff. He noticed it. He cared. Being one of the league’s most visible players came with an unspoken pressure to look put together all the time.
“I really used to care at some point about like, ‘Man, I need to get a cut this week,'” Durant said. “Then after a while, I was like, ‘I’m way more relaxed when I’m just not giving a f**k,'” he revealed. “So, I just stop getting cuts, stop lotioning… I take showers.”
That last part drew laughter from VanVleet, which prompted Durant to clarify in real time.
“I shower, I shower, I shower… but I might go a day without, two days,” Durant said. “I might go two days sometimes without, you know what I mean, hopping in that water, wait ’til I get to the gym.”
Even that came with context. Durant said when he is home and not going anywhere, he does not feel the need to reset himself just for the sake of routine.
“I might just want to go musty for a day or two… I just like to feel close to, like, the trenches like that,” he added.
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