Fred VanVleet Breaks Silence on Kevin Durant’s ‘Curse’ and the Rockets’ Burner Account Saga
The Houston Rockets had one of the more chaotic late seasons in the NBA. A first-round exit to the Lakers. A locker room reportedly distracted by social media drama. And a star, Kevin Durant, who became the center of yet another burner account controversy.
Now Fred VanVleet is finally talking about it.
On the latest episode of his “Unguarded” podcast, VanVleet was asked directly about Durant’s alleged burner account and the impact it had on Houston’s playoff run. The Rockets guard, who missed the entire 2025-26 season with a torn ACL, did not play coy.
“The gift and the curse with K is that he’s so open, and 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 this s–t,” VanVleet said.
That is about as direct as VanVleet gets in public. He also nodded at the bigger problem, telling listeners that “a lie is always more appealing than the truth.” Translation. Once a burner narrative attaches itself to a player, the rumor becomes the story regardless of what actually happened.
The backdrop here matters. During the regular season, an X account allegedly linked to Durant began criticizing his Rockets teammates, including Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun. The account got loud enough that ESPN reported it had reportedly served as a significant distraction to the Houston locker room down the stretch of the season.
Whether the account actually belongs to Durant is still a debate. The Rockets reportedly believed internally that there was a connection. Durant has denied being behind any of the recent posts. The damage, fair or not, was already done.
VanVleet’s take is interesting because he is the kind of veteran voice this Rockets locker room badly needed. He missed the entire season with the ACL tear, and Houston felt his absence. The young core needed a steadying influence. Instead, they got daily TMZ-style speculation about whether their best player was secretly subtweeting them.
This is the part of the Durant era nobody talks about enough. The basketball is still good. He is still a top-15 player in the league at 37. But the media circus around him has been hard for every franchise that has employed him in the past five years. Brooklyn. Phoenix. Now Houston.
VanVleet’s choice of words is telling. He calls it a “curse.” Not Durant’s curse exactly, but the curse of being so open and so accessible that bad-faith actors get to graft their own narratives onto you. The fact that VanVleet, a respected veteran, is the one publicly defending Durant says something about how this locker room is processing it.
The Rockets are entering a critical offseason. VanVleet is rehabbing. Durant has another year on his deal. The young pieces, Sengun and Smith, are due for new conversations. Houston needs to figure out fast whether the Durant experiment is helping or hurting the next phase of this team.
VanVleet’s defense of Durant is a start. The Rockets need more than that, though. They need a season without daily controversy. They need their roster to actually play together. They need Durant to either fully own his social media presence or hand it off to someone else.
Fred VanVleet is the right guy to send that message. Whether anyone in that locker room listens is the next question.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
