KD Reveals His Complex Pregame Ritual

Every player has their own way of getting ready for a game. When you play 82 games over the span of seven or so months, it makes sense that each guy would create his own pregame ritual. Sleeping in a different city every night is difficult, and having some semblance of normalcy is important to keep yourself grounded. 

Kevin Durant is one of those guys who has had over a decade to perfect his pregame rituals. He knows exactly what his body and mind need before heading into a game. He described his ritual on The Boardroom.

"For a 7 p.m. game, we leave the hotel at 4 p.m. As soon as I get to the arena, I eat, I have my pre-game meal, then I head to the training table. I do all my stretches, all the muscle work, about 20 minutes, then I go straight out onto the court for 10, 12 minutes. So from 4:45 p.m. to 5:45 p.m., I'm busy. Then I send texts for 30 minutes, I look at footage from the last game we played against that team. Or their last game, the whole match.

And when there's 30 minutes left, the coach arrives, we go over the scouting report, we watch more footage and we're ready. I used to like having headphones on during warm-ups, but now I like to feel the atmosphere, be able to talk to the coach, stay grounded in the arena. Once I'm there, I want to feel the court, feel the people a bit."

Even though Durant has been branded as a “pure hooper”, someone who can just roll out of bed and start getting buckets, he obviously has thought through his ritual quite a bit. Durant takes basketball very seriously, so preparing properly before a game is of the utmost importance. 

Whatever he is doing is working. Durant is one of the greatest basketball players ever, so he should stick with his process.