“When my name is mentioned, a lot of people contact me.” Shoutout to KD, we relate and get the same amount of attention.”

Two minutes into “Weston Road Flows,” the sixth track on Drake’s fourth studio album, “Views,” the Canadian rapper delivered one of a few lines that any basketball fan would appreciate. While the bar represents both Drake and Kevin Durant at similar points in their respective careers in 2016, it is rooted in a deeper relationship that the superstars have formed over the last decade.

In response to the namedrop, Durant stated, “When your favorite rapper puts your name in a song, it makes you feel like you’ve made it, no matter what you’ve done,” a significant statement given his recent NBA MVP award.

Seven years later, the two are still at the top of their respective sports, attracting the same level of attention. Durant’s name is now included in the record credits, rather than merely being mentioned in the lyrics. Here’s a peek at the friendship of two global superstars.

Relationship between Kevin Durant and Drake explained

It’s unclear how long Durant and Drake have known each other, although the two have been pals for more than a decade.

Long before Drake’s wax shoutout, he and Durant interacted on X, the network that was formerly known as Twitter. Durant made a point of mentioning Drake, who was sitting courtside at the Amway Center in Orlando, just hours after being named MVP of the 2012 NBA All-Star Game.

Their connection transcended beyond sports and music, as Drake attended Durant’s 25th birthday party in 2013 and Durant traveled to Toronto to attend Drake’s OVO Festival in 2014.

Since then, Drake has mentioned Durant on “Weston Road Flows” and “Free Smoke,” and their friendship takes on a competitive element whenever Durant’s team plays the Raptors, for whom Drake has been the Global Ambassador since 2013.

When Durant’s Warriors were in town in 2016, the Raptors hosted “Drake Night,” and fans got a chance to observe the nature of their friendship during Durant’s walk-off interview, which Drake purposely interrupted by bumping into him.

Prior to Durant’s Achilles injury, which would hold him out for the whole 2019-20 NBA season, the two exchanged lighthearted banter during the 2019 Finals.

Durant and Drake played one-on-one as part of the music video for Drake’s “Laugh Now, Cry Later,” which was partly shot on Nike’s campus in Beaverton, Ore.

In recent years, the friendship has blossomed into a collaboration, with Durant and Drake embarking on a number of business endeavors in both sports and music.

Drake was named as one of the investors in the Brooklyn Aces, a Major League Pickleball franchise co-owned by Durant, Rich Kleiman, Michael B. Jordan, and Steve Stoute, in July 2023.

Durant joined Drake for the ring-walk-like entrance at his “It’s All a Blur” tour stop in Austin, Texas, in September.

This would prove to be a foreshadowing of things to come in the music world.

Before Drake’s eighth studio album, “For All the Dogs,” was released on Oct. 6, it was reported that Durant would be an A&R (short for artist and repertoire), which is engaged with talent discovery, song development, marketing, and promotion. Later, he was credited an executive producer on “For All the Dogs: Scary Hours Edition,” a deluxe release with six extra tracks.

Durant was also recently chosen to model the introduction of a new basketball collection for NOCTA, Drake’s partnership lifestyle brand with Nike.