Kevin Durant came up with a new nickname for himself in response to the NBA announcing its new “gravity” stat metric.
The Houston Rockets superstar dubbed himself “gravity man” since he ranks second in the league in the category, behind only former teammate Stephen Curry.
The NBA defines “gravity” as a measure of how much a player pulls defenders toward them above the expected average to more effectively determine how much attention they receive from opposing teams.
It’s not a surprise that Curry not only leads the field, but dwarfs everyone else with the amount of defensive attention he receives. He is 2.6 points ahead of Durant for the top spot. By comparison, that is the same gap between Durant in second place and James Harden at No. 5.
Despite being one of the oldest active players in the NBA, Durant remains an unstoppable scoring machine. He is averaging 25.2 points on 50.9 percent shooting (42.9 percent from three-point range).
Assuming those numbers hold for the entirety of the 2025-26 campaign, it will mark the 13th consecutive season Durant has averaged at least 25 points per game on better than 50 percent shooting.
Durant will look to show off his scoring and gravity prowess in another marquee matchup against LeBron James when the Rockets and Los Angeles Lakers square off on Christmas Day at 8 p.m. ET.