What better way to honor an important figure in your life than a portrait of them on your body?
Kevin Durant has had a busy offseason in many regards. He signed with the Warriors after spending the first nine years of his career with the Thunder franchise.
After all that, he went to Rio and won a gold medal as arguably the best player on the Team USA basketball team, and has unfortunately had to deal with the backlash of joining a team that already had three stars and is coming off a 73 win regular season.
Durant has also sought to express his musical tastes in some pretty grand tributes to his favorite artists.
Kevin Durant apparently got a tattoo of Rick James on his thigh (via @stevewiebe's Instagram) pic.twitter.com/tV1V5fcdEa
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) September 3, 2016
Earlier this offseason, Durant had gotten tattoos of Tupac Shakur and the Wu-Tang Clan logo on his left leg.
Durant has now recently added a picture of Rick James on his left thigh above the other two tattoos.
I’m not sure if it matters, but if the entire left leg is supposed to be viewed as a totem pole of adoration, it goes James, Shakur, and Wu-Tang top to bottom.
They’re all legends, and I don’t want to quibble with any of the inclusions, but if it was me, I’d probably go Shakur, Wu-Tang, James top to bottom.
I don’t have any tattoos, mainly because there’s nothing I find especially definitive to me as a person worthy of putting on my body.
If I had to choose, though, I’d probably limit it to portraits of family members, just because that’s a bond that’s never going to be broken. Clearly these artists are cherished by Durant enough to go through the cost and trouble of getting them tattooed on his body, though.
The late James certainly had his problems, but nobody can deny the impact he had on funk and soul. He was also one of the most vocal critics of MTV’s refusal to play videos from black artists in the early 1980s.
Durant’s got quite a lineup on his leg now. When he dunks over people from now on, hapless defenders will catch a glimpse of Tupac whizzing by them.