Kevin Durant’s gaming sessions have turned into something a lot bigger than a way to kill time. For the Houston Rockets star, the headset has become a doorway to real friendships, including people he first met online and now trusts enough to have in his home.
On an episode of Boardroom Talks, Speedy Morman asked Durant if he has actually built friendships through video games and whether those people knew who they were playing with.
“Yes, they hung out with me in my house,” Durant said. “They’d been friends with me for damn near 10 years now… One of my best friends I met on the game… And it’s like I trust this dude with anything.
Like seriously. We hung out plenty of times.
So, I’m like, ‘Let me see what this dude really about.'”
Durant said the relationship started with regular sessions alongside the same group, and eventually he felt like he needed to meet them face to face. Once he did, that only confirmed what he already felt: they were good people, and they’re still in his life now.
What makes the story even more striking is that some of those friends are living completely different lives from an NBA superstar. They work normal jobs, which Durant found almost hard to believe.
“We got 9-to-5s,” Durant said. “… And I’m like, ‘How y’all got so much time to play the game with me?’
My job is from 9 to 11 in the summer. I go to work, and I don’t have to do that.
I just go do that ’cause I love to do it. And I’m like, ‘How y’all got so much time to play the game?’
I’m just like, man, this my safe haven for real. This is what I do to decompress.
“It’s 10 of us in a party,” Durant continued. “We competitively playing the game.
We communicating, trying to win. It’s like when you think about it, it’s good for the soul when you know after a long day at work when you come home with your homies and just vibe without having to go out and have a drink or make a big production out of it.
“So I definitely made some friends,” Durant added. “Then I got 14-year-old little homies that I’ve been kicking it with.
They’ll come to a EYBL game, and I meet them there. It’s a real community on there.”
Durant said he’s been playing with around 50 people over the past six years, and plenty of them didn’t know at first that they were talking and competing with him. Eventually, though, the truth came out.
That gaming obsession also explains why he’s so vocal about his NBA 2K ratings. He’s complained about them year after year, and most recently he took issue with his mid-range shooting rating in NBA 2K27.
Still, the number next to his name hardly looks like someone fading from the league. Durant carries a 93 overall rating in the game, and his production in 2025-26 backed up why he remains such a tough cover. He averaged 26.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.9 blocks per game for the Rockets, earned All-NBA Second Team honors, and kept rolling as a major force at 37.
Even with his game still sharp, Durant’s playing days won’t last forever. He hasn’t mapped out every detail of what comes next, but he has identified one major goal after retirement: becoming the managing director of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team. However it unfolds, he seems likely to stay connected to basketball one way or another.
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