Pro basketball star Kevin Durant is one of the most famous athletes in the world (at least as of 2021). Durant is a four-time scoring champion, a two-time finals MVP, and an 11-time All-Star. By any measure, he’s one of the defining athletes of our time. His decisions about where to play, and which teammates to play with, have thrust whole franchises up to glory and sent others plummeting down.

But surprisingly, Durant is well aware of the fleeting nature of his fame. In a 2021 interview he said, “The world is bigger than my little box, I’m not going to be playing this game forever. So I can’t be expected to stay in this box.” He laughed. “Like: ‘This is the K.D. box.’ Who gives a [expletive]? It’s been billions of people on this earth. We really are small, if you look at it from a universe perspective.”