Fred VanVleet believes Kevin Durant may be his own worst enemy when it comes to drawing negative attention from the media.
Durant became a lightning rod of controversy in his first season with the Houston Rockets when a social media account allegedly belonging to Durant was leaked. The account heavily criticized Durant’s Rockets teammates, which reportedly served as a “significant distraction” to Houston late in the season.
In the latest episode of his “Unguarded” podcast, VanVleet was asked about the role Durant’s alleged burner accounts played in the Rockets’ unceremonious end to the 2025-26 campaign. VanVleet kept things cryptic at first, claiming “lies” were “more appealing than the truth.” The Rockets guard then spoke about the “curse” Durant carries.
“I think that the gift and the curse with KD is that he’s so open,” VanVleet said of Durant.
“He’s so authentic and he’s so approachable, and he’s so him that it leaves room for the f–king clowns to jump in and add their own twist on the s–t, and then if he doesn’t come out and directly say no or go against that, which is what they want. There’s just so much room for like clickbait farming and s–t like that when it comes to him. He makes it easy for that.”
VanVleet also compared Durant to Kawhi Leonard, with whom Fred won a championship on the Toronto Raptors in 2019. He said Leonard kept to himself due to his personality and remained unbothered by negative media attention. Durant was the opposite, constantly responding to every controversy involving his name.
With VanVleet suffering a torn ACL before the start of this season, Durant lost a veteran peer in a Rockets locker room filled with young, unproven talent. Perhaps with VanVleet back in the lineup next season, Durant may not feel the need to subtweet his teammates any more — allegedly.
